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ITS HISTORY, PEOPLE, NATURAL 
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LONDON: 

THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY; 

56 , PATERNOSTER ROW ; 65 , ST. PAUL’S CHURCHYARD ; 
AND 164 , PICCADILLY: 

AND SOLD BY THE BOOKSELLERS. 

1860. 

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CONTENTS. 


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» 


CHAPTER I. 

THE HISTORY OF BRAZIL, FROM ITS DISCOVERY TO THE APPOINT¬ 
MENT OF THE FIRST VICEROY. 

Columbus—His first return—Excitement in Europe—Expeditions to 
America—The family of the Pinzons—Their history—Vincent Pinzon 
discovers Brazil—Diego Lepe—Form of taking possession—Cabral— 
Amerigo Vespucci—The name “Brazil”—Prosperity and greatness of 
Portugal—Her jealousy of France—The system of “ donatarios ” or 
captaincies—Geographical description of Brazil—The first feudatories— 

The story of Caramura—Villegagnon’s settlement of Rio—Its destruction 
—Abuses of the captaincies—Thome de Sousa first governor-general— 

His successor..1 


CHAPTER II. 

THE HISTORY OF BRAZIL, FROM THE DEATH OF KING SEBASTIAN 
TO THE MIGRATION OF THE ROYAL FAMILY. 

Death of king Sebastian—Portugal subject to Spain—Brazil attacked as a 
Spanish possession—Dutch conquest—Maurice of Nassau—Revolt of 
Portugal from Spain—Revolt in Brazil—Its failure—Vieyra—Expulsion 
of the Dutch—French attack on Rio—Peace—The Paulistas—Gold-finding 
and slave-hunting—The Gold mines—Diamonds^-The Indians—The 
Jesuits—Marquez de Pombal—His enmity to the Jesuits—Accusations 
against them—Their expulsion—Pombal’s improvements—Companies— 
Monopolies—The feudatories—The mines—Religious toleration—Pom- 
bal’s fall—Approach of the great revolution—Its effect on Brazil- 
Tumults—Portugal oppressed by France and Spain—Flight of the royal 
family to Brazil. 43 


CHAPTER III. 

HISTORY OF BRAZIL, FROM THE ARRIVAL OF JOHN VI. TO THE 
ABDICATION OF THE FIRST EMPEROR. 

Prosperity and discontent of Brazil—Arrival of the royal family—Character 
of the regent—Effect of the migration of the royal family—Elevation of 
Brazil into a kingdom—Death of the queen and coronation of John—Dis- 





VI 


CONTENTS. 


content of Portugal and Brazil—Revolutions in both—John leaves Brazil 
—First and last united cortes—The Prince Dom Pedro—Proclaimed 
emperor—Tumults—Peace—the Brazilian constitution—The Andradas— 

The emperor dissolves the assembly—Prepares the constitution himself 
—Dom Pedro’s popularity—His errors—Abdicates kingdom of Portugal 
—Unsuccessful wars—Unpopular ministries—Riots—The emperor abdi¬ 
cates . . . . . ..71 


CHAPTER IV. • 

HISTORY OF BRAZIL, FROM THE ABDICATION OF DOM PEDRO I. TO 
THE PRESENT TIME. 

Proclamation of Dom Pedro n.—Tranquillity—Progress—State of parties— 
Democratic doctrine that the emperor was of age at fourteen—The debate 
on it—The emperor’s assent—His accession—Personal character of the 
present emperor—His urbanity—Opening the chambers—The emperor 
and the “ sovereigns”—His abilities and attainments—Royal residences— 

The emperor’s message to the chambers.106 


CHAPTER Y. 

THE RELIGION AND RELIGIOUS CONDITION OF BRAZIL. 

Religion generally—Brazil Roman Catholic—Is an exception to the general 
character of Roman Catholic countries—Reasons—Clerical celibacy— 
Feijo—Unpopularity of the papacy and its ministers—Corruption of the 
clergy—Great change probable—Forms of Brazilian religion—No preach¬ 
ing—Padres—Advertisements—Festivals—Ecclesiastical buildings — St. 
Anthony—Now a colonel—Readiness in Brazil to receive instruction and 
Bibles—Dr. Kidder’s missionary experience—Slavery in Brazil—Coffee- 
carriers—Minas negroes—The republic of Palmares—Capoeiros—State of 
slaves.130 


CHAPTER VI. 

SOCIAL CONDITION OF BRAZIL—MANNERS, CUSTOMS, ETC. 

Domestic life—proprieties—Houses—Daily life of a Brazilian lady—Salu¬ 
tations—Formality—Domestic slaves—Children—Sweetmeats—The Bra¬ 
zilian young lady—Universal sobriety—Markets—Meals—The Mate— 
Amusements—The Brazilian young gentleman—Collegios—Education 
and academies—Rank and titles—The chambers—Politics—Literature— 

The Portuguese language—Newspapers—The national library, societies, 
and institutions—Administration of justice—Medicine—Peculiar diseases 
—Beggars—Foundling hospitals—Madame Pfeiffer’s view of Brazilian 
society—The provinces—Pernambuco—The Sertanigos—The Sebastiau- 
ists—Hostility between the Brazilians and the Portuguese—Music— 
Negro melodies—Fertility and advantages of Brazil .... 163 




CONTENTS 


Vll 


CHAPTER VII. 

NATURAL PRODUCTIONS OF BRAZIL. 

Manioc—Its preparation and use—Palms—Euterpe Edulis—Cocoa-palms— 
Plantains—Bananas—Oranges—Pot-tree—Brazil-N uts—Cocoa—Tea— 
Coffee—Pine-apples—Grenadillas—Mango—Ochre—Inga—Alligator-pear 
—Custard-apple—Creepers and Orchidaceae—Wourali poison arrows and 
blowing-cane—Fish and farinha—Perieca—Tambaci—Cow-fish—A mani- 
tus fruit—Indian seine—Turtles—Egg-butter—Anaconda serpents—The 
leper and the rattlesnake—Electrical eel—Toads—Scorpions—Iguana— 
Mosquitoes and sand-flies—Moqueens—Chigoes—Bees—Ants—Ants ex¬ 
communicated—Ant-eaters—Peccaries—Battle of the pigs—Paca—Capy- 
bara—Agouti—Armadillo— Vampire-bats—Tigers—Tapir—Sloth—Mon¬ 
keys—Guaribas, or howling-monkeys—Spider-monkeys—Lemurs— Mar- 
mozets—Harpy eagle—Caracara Toucan Chatterers—Companero—Um¬ 
brella bird—Colours of birds in Brazil—Victoria ltegia—Jacana—Boatbill 
—Spoonbill—Parrots and macaws—The parrot university—Humming¬ 
birds .219 


CHAPTER VIII. 

THE ABORIGINES OF BRAZIL. 

The Brazilian Indians an integral part of the empire—Tupi-Guarani race 
and language—Orellana—His voyage and discoveries—Name of “ Ama¬ 
zon ”—Journey of two priests and six soldiers down it—Teixera’s voyage 
and discoveries—The Amazons—Ancient number and magnitude of the 
tribes—Lingua Franca—Emigration of the Aymores—Extinct nations— 
Reasons of the preservation of the Brazilian tribes—Uses of the palms— 
Cannibals—Migration of persecuted tribes—Present freedom of the 
Indians—Their debasement—Government— Feather-work—India-rubber 
shoes—Weapons—Their future—Their irreligion—Devil-worship—An 
Indian funeral—A Seekroe, or funeral feast—Obi—The gra-gre horn— 
Taboo—A Towka marriage—Indian physic—A snake-bite cured—Chicha 
palm-wine—Madame Pfeiffer’s Indian experience—Sukias—Conclusion . 29b 






BRAZIL 


CHAPTER I. 

THE HISTORY OF BRAZIL, FROM ITS DISCOVERY TO THE APPOINT¬ 
MENT OF THE FIRST VICEROY. 


Columbus—His first return—Excitement in Europe—Expeditions to America— 
The family of the Pinzons—Their history—Vincent Pinzon discovers Brazil 
—Diego Lepe—Form of taking possession—Cabral—Amerigo Vespucci—The 
name “ Brazil ’’—Prosperity and greatness of Portugal—Her jealousy of 
France—The system of “ donatarios ” or captaincies—Geographical descrip¬ 
tion of Brazil—The first feudatories—The story of Caramura—Villegagnon’s 
settlement of Rio—Its destruction—Abuses of the captaincies—Thome de 
Sousa first governor-general—His successor. 

On the 15th of March 1493, at midday, a little 
battered boat with lateen sails entered the Spanish 
port of Palos. A tall grey-haired man stepped from 
her side on to the shore, amid the shonts and almost 
delirious excitement of the crowd, the ringing o.f bells, 
and the thunder of cannon. The vessel was the 
caravel Kina. The man was Christopher Columbus. 

No event of modem times has ever, perhaps, created 
such a sensation; nor is it probable that any mere 
earthly event ever will. 

It is difficult to realize in these days what the state 
of feeling must have been with which Europe greeted 
the first return of Columbus from the new-found 
world. The real magnitude of the event could 

B 


2 


BRAZIL. 


hardly be grasped: its consequences conld hardly 
be foreseen. But, beyond all this, men were ready 
for it. The old world was almost at peace. Commerce 
was increasing wealth. Science was multiplying 
power. Growing populations were adding to the 
number of those ardent, restless, unmanageable 
spirits, to whom danger, suffering, adventure, and 
insubordination are as their vital breath : the best of 
pioneers, and the worst of subjects. Their occupation 
was gone with the cessation of the wars that had so 
long convulsed Europe. The last Moorish king of 
Granada had just yielded up the keys of the Alhambra 
to the sovereigns of Castile and Arragon. John of 
Portugal had made peace with his Spanish neighbours. 
Portuguese ships were beginning to creep after 
Yasco de Gama towards the Cape of Good Hope. 
France and Germany were, for those days, in a state 
of profound tranquillity. Genoa and Yenice were 
quiet, one from exhaustion after her long struggles 
with the Turks, and the other from intestine discords. 
And, far in the north, a politic Tudor, curbing and 
crushing the expiring struggles of the haughty 
nobility, whose bloody feuds had so long paralysed 
their country, was preparing and fostering English 
energy and hardihood for the greatest mission nation 
ever yet fulfilled. God had bidden the old world be 
at peace, and opened to them the new. 

The news travelled far and wide. All nations had 
their representatives in the brilliant court that 
gathered round the magnificent sovereigns of Castile 
and Arragon, husband and wife, yet equal princes. 
Eager eyes from every civilized people were 
fastened on the long procession that wound through 
the streets of Barcelona. English nobles, German 


DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 


3 


knights, Spanish grandees, Flemish, Genoese and 
Venetian merchants flocked round the six dusky 
captives from the unknown land, wondering at their 
barbaric grace and beauty, and noting with greedy 
speculation the rough yellow ornaments that told of 
precious mines and golden rivers in the western 
paradise. Roofs, windows, and balconies, were 
crowded, streets and lanes were choked with the 
thousands that gazed and shouted after the gentle 
and noble admiral, as he rode, smiling with gracious 
triumph, to the hall where sat Ferdinand and Isabella, 
king and queen, to their astonished delight, of a new 
world. 

Before the year was out, all Europe was ringing 
with the tidings. Every soldier of fortune, every 
discontented noble, all the unquiet spirits, all the 
speculative merchants, were wondering and hanker¬ 
ing after the glory and the riches of Cathay. “ The 
thing is more Divine than human,” said the good 
people of London. And Sebastian Cabot heard and 
marked. “ I feel,” writes Peter Martyr, “ a wonder¬ 
ful exultation of spirits when I converse with 
intelligent men who have returned from these 
regions. It is like an accession of wealth to a 
miser.” Pomponius Lastus said he leaped for joy, 
and his delight was mingled with tears. The 
merchants on the exchange of Sienna could talk of 
nothing else. When Marchesi and Grimaldi brought 
the news to Genoa, it was by acclamation inscribed 
on the public records as one of the triumphant events 
of the year; and the citizens, with generous exultation, 
rejoiced that, though they had lost the glory of the 
discovery, they could claim the discoverer as theirs. 
Smarting with humiliation at the charifce he had 

b 2 


4 


BKAZ1L. 


missed, John of Portugal strained every nerve to 
profit by the opportunity, and gain the nine points 
cf the law—possession. Two of the admiral’s sailors 
were engaged as pilots: Francisco de Almeida was 
appointed captain: and, but for the fiat of the 
Vatican, the Portuguese expedition would have 
renewed on the other side of the Atlantic, the 
struggle with such difficulty restrained in Europe. 

No ecclesiastical prohibitions, however, could quiet 
the great longing of the awakened world. Heedless 
of the meridian line of demarcation drawn by the 
pope between the future dominions of Spain and 
Portugal, from every port and dockyard the vessels 
started for the west. Open boats, little larger than 
the long-boats of one of our ocean-steamers, much 
smaller than many gentlemen’s yachts, began to 
swarm across the Atlantic.- 

It is almost ludicrous to us, who travel in saloons 
like palace drawing-rooms, and carry to sea with us 
every luxury and comfort of civilized life, except 
that of steadiness for the soles of our feet, to read of 
ships, or rather luggers, undecked, of fifty, sixty, or 
seventy tons, starting from Europe for Cuba and 
Florida. The sort of exulting discontent with which 
Columbus himself speaks of the inconveniently mag¬ 
nificent size of his great ship of one hundred tons is 
almost diverting, if it were not so astonishing. The 
truth is that the great discovery which two hundred 
years before would have been lost in the struggles 
and din of savage and ignorant barbarism, and a few 
hundred years later would have been a nine days’ 
wonder, like the opening of Japan, or the finding of 
the north-west passage, was made precisely in one of 
those breathing times that seem always to herald the 


EXCITEMENT AND EXPEDITIONS. 


5 


approach of some great event. Men hold their 
hands, and their breath, asking what is coming upon 
the earth. In the times and seasons, and the pre¬ 
paration of men’s minds and nation’s affairs, for 
great discoveries, the hand of God appears, perhaps, 
quite as plainly as in any other part of his dealings 
with the world at large. 

And so now. Men were mad with excitement: 
there was nothing to interfere with it: all was 
new and strange; and with a recklessness and 
audacity of which we can hardly conceive, the rough 
fishermen and coasting sailors of Spain and France, 
and Portugal and England, put to sea in cranky skiffs 
and galleys under the command of country squires, 
soldiers, courtiers, and younger sons—anybody who 
could furnish, beg, or borrow the money for the 
armament; and pushed out for the golden land, 
across the Atlantic, with less fear than Jason and his 
crew rowed up the Bosphorus after the golden fleece, 
or a lady starts now for Calcutta round the Cape. 

Ojeda, one of the Duke of Medina Celi’s pages, 
and Amerigo Vespucci, a bankrupt merchant, dis¬ 
covered Surinam. Nino, a common sailor, and Christo¬ 
pher Guerra, the troublesome brother of the merchant 
who fitted out the expedition, landed in the gulf 
of Paria. Lepe, an idle gentleman, and Bastides, 
an attorney of Seville, explored the coast of Terra 
Firma from Cape de la Vela, to Nombre de Dios. 
Vasco Nunez de Balboa, a ruined nobleman, who had 
turned fencing-master, first of all Europeans saw 
the Pacific. Juan Ponce de Leon, a page and then 
a soldier of fortune, conquered Porto Rico and Florida. 
Nicaesa, the Bachelor Euciso, Valdivia, and a host 
of others, cruised about the innumerable islands 


6 


BRAZIL. 


with insatiable curiosity and greediness, and often 
with detestable cruelty. 

Our business is now with two of these dauntless 
sailors —Vincent Granez Pinzon and Pedro Alvares 
Cabral, and then with the land they discovered. 

Pinzon was one of a family of wealthy sailors of 
Palos. When Columbus, weary, disheartened and 
foot-sore, had stopped to rest at the convent of La 
Rabida, the prior, in an agony of patriotism at his 
expressed intention of carrying his splendid offers 
and theories to France, and yet greatly distrusting his 
own judgment, called in his friends to hear the 
strange Italian’s talk : one of these was Martin Alonzo 
Pinzon, the head of the family. His sailor’s know¬ 
ledge, sailor’s daring, and sailor’s superstition and 
legends all pleaded powerfully in favour of the 
existence of a western world, and still more in favour 
of a bold attempt to find it. He promised to help 
in purse and person, and kept his promise. Contrary 
to the common custom of patrons, he paid Columbus’ 
expenses to the court, and bore much of the cost of 
the first expedition. He commanded the second ship, 
the Pinta, in person, with his younger brother Fran¬ 
cisco as lieutenant. His otherbrother Vincent was cap¬ 
tain of the Nina, in which the admiral returned. The 
elder brother lost his senses, deserted Columbus, and 
failing in an attempt to rob him of his hard-earned 
glory, died of remorse and anger. Vincent, remaining 
faithful, shared in the credit of the great discovery. 

The whole family, with the one exception, received 
the reward of the manly frankness and generosity 
with which they listened to, and aided a penniless 
adventurer. Nobler families, and greater names, have 
fallen into oblivion; dukes, counts, princes, and 


VINCENT PINZON. 


kings have left nothing but their fame behind; but 
still the Pinzons carry the coat of arms their grateful 
sovereigns gave them, and use their title of gentility. 
To this day, it is believed, they dwell on the same 
little estate at Palos de Moguer that Martin Alonzo 
left to sail the Pinta, searching for the great island 
of Cipango. 

Vincent had tasted the sweets of western ad¬ 
venture ; and, as soon as he dared, he was otf again 
on his own account. His brother’s death, and 
perhaps his own jealousy, separated him from 
Columbus : at any rate, bishop Fonseca, chief 
commissioner and patriarch of the newly-found 
Indies, in his hatred to the admiral, willingly 
granted him the requisite license ; and if Pinzon 
was not an enemy of Columbus, he carefully avoided 
undeceiving the bishop. Fonseca’s spite was cheaply 
gratified. Vincent Pinzon only wanted leave to 
sail; and forthwith he proceeded to spend all his 
own money, and when that was gone, to borrow at 
eighty and one hundred per cent. Four caravels were 
fitted out, and started westward in the beginning of 
December, 1499. Like a crusading baron who left 
his manor to the mercies of the Jews and Lombards, 
so he might only get east as a baron should, Pinzon 
heeded little what might await him on his return, 
could he only get west. Determined to have to 
himself the credit of whatever he did find, he took a 
new course. After passing the Cape de Verd Islands, 
he stood southward, but always west. In due time, 
first of all Europeans in these seas, he crossed the 
invisible belt that separates our globe into the 
northern and southern hemispheres. A great tempest 
drove the squadron southward. When the stars 


8 


BRAZIL. 


appeared again, the adventurers did not know them: 
The pole-star was blotted out, and the trembling 
seamen strained their eyes and wits to account for its 
extinction. At length the consolatory doctrine was 
established, that the storm had blown them round 
or over some great protuberance of the earth which 
now hid the north star from them. With persevering 
boldness they sailed on over a strange sea, under 
strange heavens, till, on the 28th January, 1500, they 
saw land. 

It was a green promontory, encircled by palm- 
groves and deep forests. Pinzon, with his head full 
of the Great Khan, Cathay, Cipango, the golden city 
of Quinsai, mermaids, anthropophagi, and all Marco 
Polo’s other authentic discoveries, and led wrong by 
Columbus’ own inaccurate estimate of the earth’s 
circumference, jumped to the conclusion that this 
was, must, and should be Catha} r , or else Hindustan. 
As he inhaled the land-breeze, which, to this day, 
is fragrant with all tropical scents, his fervid Spanish 
brain pictured the great fleets of spice ships, and 
the galleons laden with gold, and Vincente Gaiiez Pin¬ 
zon ambassador, if not viceroy. Could he, like Balaam, 
have looked forward and beheld, though not nigh, 
the great empire that 1 as so silently and rapidly 
sprung up there, full of vigorous life and liberty, 
he would have better appreciated the magnitude of 
his own discovery. It is strange with what incura¬ 
ble pertinacity the bold sailors of Spain clung to the 
idea of the great kingdom on the east of India that 
they were to find by sailing west. Nothing, no 
strangeness of climate and fruits and animals, no 
singularity or barbarism in the inhabitants, could 
open their eyes to the fact that it was a new world, 


DISCOVERY OF SOUTH AMERICA. 


9 


not tlie other side of Asia, which they had found. 
As the anti-Copemicans bewildered themselves with 
an infinity of hollow spheres, and other impossible 
assumptions, rather than put the sun where he was, 
so the early discoverers seem to have laboured under 
some irremovable blindness about what was before 
their eyes. Virgin soil, primeval forests, tangled 
underwood, beds hung on the trees, mere sheds 
for houses, nudity, absolute ignorance, were to them 
signs of an ancient, civilized, and powerful monarchy. 
Columbus died believing he had found the other 
side of India, or at least China, and nothing else. 
Any terrified signs, and unintelligible sounds of the 
natives that he could torture into a corroboration of 
what he was dreaming of day and night, set him ofi 
travelling to the great city of Quinsai, and prepar¬ 
ing his most splendid embassy to impress its venerable 
sovereign. Every ridiculous disappointment seemed 
only to impress his ignis fatuus more vividly on his 
brain. We are unable to discover on whom the great 
truth first dawned. Vincent Pinzon, as we have seen, 
thought he had got to Hindustan. 

Feasting his eyes on the beautiful scene after the 
danger and anxiety of the sea, he named the cape off 
which his ships were riding Santa Maria de Con¬ 
solation. It is one of the easternmost points of 
South America, now known as Cape Sao Agostinho. 

He landed, and in solemn form, with notary and 
witnesses, took possession of the land for the king 
of Castile. The next day, an interview with some 
ferocious-looking and unmanageable savages induced 
him to sail north along the coast. On his next 
landing a desperate conflict with the natives ended 
in the slaughter of several of the Spaniards, and the 


10 


BRAZIL. 


loss of one of their boats. Pinzon became somewhat 
disheartened, and sailed further northwards. Spain 
had the larger share of the glory, but none of the profit 
of the discovery : before Pinzon could even report his 
conquest, it no longer belonged to Castile. He re¬ 
turned, beggared and almost broken-hearted, with 
but few of his companions, to fill his native town 
with mourning, and to seek refuge from his creditors 
in his sovereign’s charity. 

The people of Palos had murmured aloud when 
bidden to furnish Columbus with necessary ships and 
stores; but ever since his return, the town had 
been in a fever of excitement. No one could think 
of anything but expeditions to the west. Ganez 
Pinzon had scarcely left the port, when Diego Lepe, 
a Palos man, started after him with two ships. 
Following the same course, he also sighted Cape St. 
Augustin. Then, instead of north, he went south; 
how far, is not known. He landed and performed 
the solemn ceremony of taking possession of the 
country for Spain, in the ludicrous terms invented 
by Alonso de Ojeda, which served as a model to the 
Spaniards ever after. Herrera preserves for us the 
gallant captain’s rather dull sermon about the nature 
of the Deity and the authority of the pope, ending, 
nevertheless, in a highly practical application : “If 
you will not comply, or maliciously delay to obey 
my injunction, then, with the help of God, I will 
enter the country by force; I will carry on war 
against you with the utmost violence; I will subject 
you to the yoke of obedience to the church and king; 
I will take your wives and children and will make 
them slaves, and sell or dispose of them according to 
his majesty’s pleasure • I will seize your goods, and 


cabkal’s discovery. 


11 


do you all the mischief in my power, as rebellions 
subjects, who will not acknowledge or submit to 
their lawful sovereign.” As the exhortation was 
addressed to a dozen trembling natives in a foreign 
language, or more frequently to his own followers 
only, the Spanish captain was often under the painful 
necessity of carrying out his threats. Lepe endea¬ 
voured to leave a record of his discourse and its 
object by selecting a tree so huge that, as is related, 
seventeen men with their hands joined could not 
embrace the trunk, and by carving Ferdinand and 
Isabella’s names on it. 

But in fact both Pinzon and Lepe’s formalities 
were null and void by treaty. All they had dis¬ 
covered was east of the pope’s meridian line dividing 
Spain’s future conquests from Portugal’s. Although 
the proposed expedition to fix this line never started, 
there was no doubt about the matter. The line was 
a meridian from pole to pole, 370 leagues west of the 
Cape de Yerd Islands. All to the east was Portugal’s; 
all to the west was Spain’s. 

A new king had ascended the Portuguese throne, 
on the death of John. He was not slack to assert 
•and obtain his rights at the earliest opportunity; 
and he was the first to hear of the new country, 
though a Spaniard was the first discoverer. 

Not two months after Pinzon had anchored off 
Cape St. Augustin, king Emanuel of Portugal in 
person despatched a large fleet to follow the new 
route to ihe East Indies round the Cape, just dis¬ 
covered by Yasco de Gama. Pedro Alvares Cabral, 
the commander, adopted the course taken to this day, 
and sailed west with the trade-wind, to avoid the 
calm off the African coast. To his astonishment, 


12 


BRAZIL. 


before he turned to the south-east, he came in sight 
of land. On the 21st of April, 1500, he disembarked 
on the shore that Pinzon had left ninety days before. 
It was near Mount Pascal, south of Cape St. Augustin. 

More fortunate than his predecessor, the inhabitants 
did not object to his ceremonies, but, in the words of 
the sanguine officiating priest, “ the savages imitated 
the gestures and movements of the Portuguese” 
during the celebration of mass. 

Before starting for the Cape, Cabral sent one of his 
captains home to king Emanuel with the tidings of 
his new kingdom. 

Greatly delighted, the king sent out three ships 
the next year, and two years afterwards six more. 
In both expeditions sailed the merchant and writer 
Amerigo Vespucci. Cabral had called the new land 
Vera Cruz; hut the name of the Florentine was 
given, and has continued to belong to the whole of 
the continent, north and south. Nevertheless, neither 
the name given by the devout captain, nor that of the 
Italian adventurer, was to be the name of the Portu¬ 
guese dominion. Dye wood, of the colour of 
“ brazas ” (coals on fire), was the most valuable part 
of the cargoes home ; and Brazil the wilful people 
insisted on calling the land that produced it. The 
opinion of the priests was that nothing but the ex¬ 
press intervention of the devil could have given it 
such a name. “ Shame,” lamented a Jesuit, “ that the 
cupidity of man, by unworthy traffic, should change 
the wood of the cross, red with the real blood of Christ, 
for that of another wood, like it only in colour.” 

Four of the six ships of the last squadron had been 
lost in a storm. The two remaining ones drifted 
south, and sought refuge in a beautiful harbour, 


PORTUGUESE COLONIZATION. 


13 


which the adventurers named Bahia de Todos Santos 
(All Saints’ Bay). Here the vessels remained five 
months. Amerigo employed his time in making 
friends with the adjoining tribes, laying in a valuable 
cargo of the sinfully named wood and other things, 
such as monkeys and parrots, and in forming the 
first European settlement in Brazil. A small fort 
was erected, and left in the charge of a force, some 
say of twelve, others of twenty-four men. Then the 
ships sailed home. 

But the Portuguese government was now in the 
full tide of prosperous colonization. Africa and the 
East Indies were more valuable and interesting to 
the merchants of Lisbon than the virgin soil of the 
New World. The great Yasco de Gama sailed a 
second time to India. Lope Luares followed him 
with 13 ships and 1200 men. Francisco de Almeida 
went out soon after as chief governor. Lorenzo 
Almeida, his son, conquered the Maldives, and esta¬ 
blished factories in Ceylon. Many others carried on 
the same system in Sumatra, Malacca, and the rest of 
the Eastern Archipelago. Portuguese merchants 
traded with the Peguans and the Burmese. China 
and Japan, which were only the other day thoroughly 
opened to us, were familiar markets to the subjects of 
Emanuel, John, and Sebastian. Macao was a Portu¬ 
guese settlement. Portuguese missionaries converted 
more than half a million of Japanese to the Eoman 
faith. Under Albuquerque, Portugal reached the 
summit of her glory. No flag but hers could fly 
along the whole African coast. No ship, without 
her permission, dared anchor in any harbour from 
Gibraltar to Abyssinia, from Ormuz to Siam. To 
the end of the reign of John the Third, Emanuel’s 



14 


BRAZIL. 


successor, 1557, the same career of conquest and 
commercial activity proceeded. And then began the 
change. Misgovernment, tyranny, and above all, 
the Inquisition and the Jesuits (first admitted by 
John in.) strangled the rising fortune of the little 
kingdom. The crown fell from her brow, and, in 
God’s good providence, has been transferred to an 
island little larger than Portugal, which, in the six¬ 
teenth century, could not have disputed the possession 
of an inch of ground with her for a week. England 
wears the mantle that Spain and Portugal in their 
blindness and bigotry let fall. 

This busy prosperity, however, diverted attention 
from Brazil. Wandering Spanish and Portuguese 
adventurers still prowled along the coast. De Solis 
discovered the great estuary La Plata. He entered, on 
his course thither, a land-locked harbour, named 
soon after Bahia de Santa Luzia, but now Rio de 
Janeiro, the site of the Brazilian capital. Magellan, 
sailing to the Indies, visited it, and coasted south to 
the straits that bear his name, and thence, for the 
first time in the history of the world, sailed round 
the globe. 

But the government of Portugal for nearly thirty 
years utterly neglected their American territory. 
Portuguese traders sent thither for dye wood, and 
their factories and agents established a chain of • 
settlements along the coast. At last the government, 
after the manner of governments, interfered so as 
to make the colony regret their past condition of 
parental neglect. Cargo after cargo of hopeless 
criminals were sent over, disembarked, and left to 
take their chance. No legal authority existed: 
there was no force at its command if it had; and 


BRAZIL NEGLECTED. 


15 


the result was a sort of vast Norfolk Island, without 
the police. The horrors of the conquest of the West 
Indies, Mexico, Peru, and Florida, by the Spaniards 
are almost incredible, and were aggravated by the 
mildness and helplessness of most of the victims. 
An additional stimulus was added to ferocity in 
Brazil by the absence of all law and control, and by 
the sturdy and savage resistance of the fierce tribes of 
the interior. Many of these were cannibals; and 
this custom seems to have been almost the only 
moral difference between them and their Christian 
enemies. Heaven had made the land a paradise, 
and man devoted his utmost energies to turn it into 
a pandemonium. 

The lawlessness and sufferings of his American 
dominions would hardly have induced John hi., who 
had succeeded his father Emanuel, to spend much 
money or trouble on them. Happily, perhaps, for 
them a stronger plea aroused him. The vast forests 
of Brazil wood, and the increasing value of the dye, 
began to bring other than Portuguese vessels to the 
shores of the new country. English, Spanish, 
Genoese, Italian, and, worst of all, French ships 
appeared more and more often on the Brazilian coast. 
John’s jealousy, and hatred of France was roused. 
Little states often are, and for their own preservation 
and importance, perhaps, must be, in troublesome 
times, politically ill-tempered. 

The spirit of contention and jealousy had by no 
means been purged out of Portugal under John hi. 
Indeed it had never been more rife. Nor was it till 
the death of his grandson and successor, Sebastian, 
that it received its first terrible check. On that 
bloody day on the banks of the Luk, when of three 


16 


BRAZIL. 


kings who went into the conflict not one came out 
alive—when the flower of the Portuguese and Spanish 
troops were mowed down by the savage cavalry of 
the Moors and Spanish Moriscoes, burning to avenge 
the loss of Granada—the ambition of Portugal received 
a blow it never recovered. The battle of Alcasar 
was to Portugal ultimately what the battle of Sellasia 
was to Lacedaemon immediately. Portugal was on 
the verge of vast dominion—the dominion England 
holds now. Had Sebastian followed the advice of 
his wisest counsellors, even of the king of Spain, 
and disregarded the Jesuits, the two Moorish kings 
might have finished their quarrel themselves, and 
Portugal been saved from the corrupting ordeal of 
Spanish government. 

But the evil day had not come yet, and John medi¬ 
tated how to prevent this irritating poaching on a 
domain he was hardly rich enough to protect, and 
far too proud to abandon. Brazil had to be governed, 
and defended against adventurers. The king could 
not, after careful calculation of his means, afford to 
do it; and yet he could not bear—his people would 
not endure—that it should be given up, and to 
Frenchmen. 

He determined on an ingenious method that had 
been already tried, and successfully, in Madeira and 
the Azores. Its principle was the simple one of 
making other people do the work at their own ex¬ 
pense and risk, and taking the chief profit and 
honour himself. This device, in those days of fer¬ 
vent loyalty, was possible, and accordingly was 
frequently adopted. It had the advantage of exceed¬ 
ing economy, a virtue which the great sovereigns of 
that period practised most successfully. Henry vn. 


DONATORIOS OR CAPTAINCIES. 


17 


of England was all but a miser. Elizabeth hardly 
ever created even a baron. Her knighthood was equal 
to an earldom with us, in the estimation of those sage 
counsellors, brilliant courtiers, and gallant soldiers 
and sailors that surrounded her throne. Her pensions 
were in hundreds where ours are in thousands. 
Ferdinand rewarded his pilots and captains and dis¬ 
coverers by pensions charged on the future revenue 
of the provinces they had found, whensoever their 
exertions should have rendered them profitable. 

John determined on governing the Brazils by 
granting great tracts of territory to any who would 
undertake the task of colonizing, governing, and 
civilizing them. These donatorios , or captaincies, were 
in fact, petty kingdoms, under the absolute sove¬ 
reignty of the feudatories to Avhom they were granted. 
The governor’s powers and jurisdiction were un¬ 
limited, except in so far as he owed suzerainty to 
his sovereign. 

He bore to the king of Portugal much the same 
relation that the governor-general in council of 
India bears (or rather lately bore) to the queen and 
parliament of England. Or, still more accurately, 
he might be called a satrap. Herodotus gives in his 
“ Third Book ” a description of Darius’ division of 
Persia, that might stand almost without alteration 
for the division of Brazil. “ He established,” says 
Herodotus, “ twenty provinces, which they called 
satrapies, to each of which an absolute governor was 
appointed. He then ascertained the tribute which 
each was to pay, connecting sometimes many nations 
together which were near each other, under one dis¬ 
trict.” Supposing the governors to have been com¬ 
missioned to conquer and colonize the districts given 

c 


18 


BRAZIL. 


them, and the nations collected under each satrapy 
to be barbarous tribes, this is exactly what John 
did. 

At this stage of our history it may be well to en¬ 
deavour to give a clear geographical idea of Brazil 
and its chief divisions. 

The territory, consisting of the eastern portion of 
South America, lies, north and south, between about 
4° N. lat., and 33° 40' S. lat.; and east and west, 
between about 35° and 70° W. long. From north to 
south it measures about 2600 miles. From east to 
west about 2500; though the northern part of its 
western boundary is still practically undefined. Its 
area is very little short of 3,000,000 square miles. 
Figures, however, give no idea of shape, and but 
little of size. A more familiar description may be 
more easily understood, and therefore more useful. 

South America may be roughly described as a long 
triangle, with its base lying diagonally across the 
equator, and its apex pointing to the south pole. 
The apex is made by Patagonia, and, travelling north, 
the following countries line the western coast. First, 
directly north of Patagonia, Chili and La Plata, side by 
side; north of them again, Bolivia; north-west of it, 
Peru; and north of Peru, composing the north-western 
and northern portions of the continent, the three re¬ 
publics, Ecuador, New Granada, and Venezuela formed 
out of the region formerly called Columbia, and the 
Guianas. All the rest, that is, the eastern side and 
centre, is Brazil, with the exception of two compara¬ 
tively small southern republics to be mentioned 
presently. 

As all the western countries above enumerated 
are about the same width, it follows that the shape 


GEOGRAPHY OF BRAZIL. 


Id 


of Brazil is much the same as that of South America 
itself, a triangle, with its apex pointing south¬ 
wards. 

The two smaller republics referred to are Uruguay 
Oriental, part of the province formerly called Banda 
Oriental, and Paraguay. The first lies at the southern 
extremity of Brazil, forming its southernmost boun¬ 
dary ; the second republic lies about four degrees 
of latitude further north, touching the western boun¬ 
dary of the empire. 

The apex of the Brazilian triangle may be fixed 
on the Atlantic coast, south of the lake Mirim in 
33° 40' S. lat. 

From that point, tracing the boundary in a north¬ 
west direction, it touches successively the several 
states mentioned: namely, Uruguay Oriental ; La 
Plata, at the portion named Entre dos Bios (that is, 
the rivers Parana and Uruguay); Paraguay; Bolivia ; 
Peru; Ecuador, and New Granada. From a point 
touching the northern line of this last province the 
northern boundary of Brazil tends to the N.E., skirt¬ 
ing Venezuela and the Guianas, and reaching the 
Atlantic at the mouth of the river Oyapok, in about 
4° N. lat,' 

And now to specify the provinces. They are 
twenty in number. Ascending from the south, along 
the eastern coast they run thus:—North-east of 
Uruguay lies Bio Grande do Sul; next to it S. 
Catharina; then Parana, and north of it, S. Paulo. 
The province of Bio de Janeiro follows, in which is 
the present capital of the same name. Espirito 
Santo comes next, and then Bahia, containing the 
old capital of Bahia de Todos Santos, followed by 
Sergipe and Alagoas. Then in succession Pemam- 

c 2 





20 


BRAZIL. 


buco, Parahiba, Bio Grande del Norte, and Geara 
form the north-eastern corner of Brazil and South 
America. Westwards, one after the other, lie Piauhi, 
Maranhao, and Para. The vast undefined districts of 
Alto Amazonas form the north-western angle; and 
the great western and central provinces of Mato 
Grosso, Goyaz, and Minas Geraes, reaching down 
again to Paraguay, complete the territory. 

The rivers must not be neglected, in which Brazil 
is richer than most countries. In the far west, rising 
in unknown or little known sources in Alto Ama¬ 
zonas, and fed by many large tributaries, the Amazon, 
queen of rivers, runs eastward from the Andes to the 
Atlantic, reaching the sea on the north-western 
boundary of Para. At its mouth, as part of its delta, 
lies the great island of Marajo. Into the same delta, 
on the other or eastern side of the island, runs the 
river Tocantins, which, in its course almost due 
north, is joined by the Araguaia, and at its mouth 
by the Anapa from the south-west. 

Southwards, from the mountains skirting the pro¬ 
vinces of Goyaz and Mato Grosso, run the Paranahiba 
and the Paraguay. Joining, they flow together under 
the name of the Parana, and at the south of Uruguay 
meet the river Uruguay, and form the immense estuary 
known as the Bio de la Plata. 

Eastward, again, from the province of Minas 
Geraes, flows the San Francisco in a northerly direc¬ 
tion, making the southern boundary of Pernambuco, 
and dividing it from Bahia. 

The Maranhao flows north between the province 
of the same name and Para. And another Para¬ 
nahiba divides Maranhao on its eastern side from 
Piauhi. 


THE FIRST DONATORY. 


21 


But it would be wearisome and profitless to enu¬ 
merate'more of the countless streams, which with 
their tributaries pour in every direction into the 
Atlantic from the centre of this vast and well-watered 

land. 

Having thus attempted to give an idea of the shape 
of the country, and especially of the order# of its 
provinces, we shall better understand king John’s 
method of preserving his western possessions by 
means of donations of territory. He had plenty 
.of material from which to supply as greedy a court 
as a king ever was surrounded by; for the area of 
Brazil at present is between twelve and fourteen 
times as large as that of France; and in those days 
its limits were altogether vague. 

His plan was to grant about 150 miles of coast; 
and the feudatory, drawing two parallel lines due 
west, had free leave to go between them in that 
direction, as far as he chose, or could. 

The first grant was made to a nobleman, Martin 
Affonso de Sousa. He sailed from Lisbon on the 
3rd December, 1530. The process for which the 
king hoped began forthwith under his able and 
energetic proconsul. Three of the hated French 
ships were hovering off Cape St. Augustin. De Sousa 
attacked them at once, took them, and towed his 
prizes into the bay on whose shore Pernambuco now 
stands. When he had repaired his ships, he sailed 
southwards, touching at the Bay of Todos Santos. 
His captaincy was from the Bay of Rio de Janeiro (the 
discovery of which a doubtful legend ascribes to 
him) to the mouth of La Plata. The noble captain 
seems to have laboured, in respect to his territories, 
under the saiue perplexity that now troubles the 


22 


BRAZIL. 


builders who construct new streets in the suburbs 
of London, namely, what to call them. The solution 
of the difficulty arrived at by the Boston municipality 
did not strike him. And “First Cape,” “Sixteenth 
Bay,” “ Eight and Twentieth Harbour,” would hardly 
have suited the loyal and religious spirit of that age. 
But De Sousa was sorely put to it. The whole calendar 
of saints, and all the ordinary feelings and aspirations 
of pious mariners, had been exhausted in naming 
the numberless discoveries of the early navigators. 
S. Augustins, S. Martins, S. Franciscos, S. Marias, 
swarmed in every harbour and headland and river, to¬ 
gether with Consolagoes, Espera^as, Bona-Venturas, 
and Victorias. Since all the Boman Catholic saints 
were used up, he took to pagan. All along the coast 
he called the spots he surveyed after the days and the 
months when the discoveries wer.e made. Bio de 
Janeiro (the river of January) was his first achieve¬ 
ment in the way of nomenclature. It is only of late 
years that the generally appropriate and melodious, 
and always interesting native names of places in 
America and Australia, have been retained and in 
some cases restored. There can be no question which 
is preferable—to adopt a natural, ancient, and a 
musical heathen name ready made to one’s hand, or 
to go through the labour of imposing some new, often 
harsh, and inappropriate civilized one. Toronto is far 
better than York City. But religion had as much to 
do with this unnecessary labour and sorrow as any¬ 
thing else. Should the devil’s names be allowed to 
remain dotted over the land which had been wrested 
from his gripe ? So saints, and feelings, and days of 
the week and month had their course. The date of 
the settlement of a town, or the appropriation of a 


BAY OF RIO DK JANEIRO. 



















































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































FURTHER COLONIZATION. 


25 


bay, river, or valley, can almost be told by the nature 
of its name. The ancient Indian names generally 
mark the newest acquisitions. 

De Sousa unaccountably neglected the noble 
harbour of Bio de Janeiro. He attempted to fix his 
settlement on a little island called Guaibe. Probably 
the idea was to have the protection of the sea, as well 
as of fortifications for the heart of the new colony. 
But the neighbouring tribes little appreciated the 
impending blessings of Portuguese civilization. They 
collected in dangerous numbers to repel the intruders. 
So numerous and warlike were they, that they might 
not improbably have succeeded, but for opportune 
help of a singular kind that more than once came to 
the aid of Spanish and Portuguese discoverers, at 
their wits’ end. When a galleon or caravel was 
shipwrecked in those waters, all of the crew that did 
not escape were generally massacred. Here and there, 
however, one was preserved. And years after, ex¬ 
ploring parties were startled at being addressed in 
half-forgotten Spanish by some tattooed Indian, with 
tears of joy, and convulsive invocations of all the 
saints in heaven. The same assistance which Jero¬ 
nimo Aguilar rendered Cortez, and Caramaru ren¬ 
dered Coutinho and Thome de Sousa, a shipwrecked 
Portuguese, John Bamalho now afforded to Martin 
de Sousa. He had married the daughter of a principal 
chief, and his credit with his father-in-law and the 
other chiefs prevailed to induce them to conclude a 
treaty of perpetual alliance with the Portuguese. 
Contrary to the custom of most other Europeans, the 
Portuguese kept their part of the league, on the whole, 
fairly; and the result was the most prosperous 
colony in South America, the gradual improvement 




26 


BRAZIL. 


of the natives, the preservation of civilization among 
the settlers, and the intermixture, to a certain extent, 
of the two races as in Bahia. 

De Sousa removed his seat of government, however, 
from Guaibe, to the neighbouring island of S. Vin¬ 
cent, from which his satrapy took its name; but 
nothing could preserve this exposed and inconvenient 
settlement, with such a harbour as Rio at hand, on 
which De Sousa turned his back for an exposed arm 
of the sea, and an inconvenient islet. S. Vincent 
has decayed ignominiously. Natural causes would 
have their way. “ S. Vincent,” say Kidder and 
Fletcher, “no longer exists, unless its existence may 
be predicated in the few miserable houses, and the 
broken fountain which mark the spot where was laid 
the first stone of the proudest colony of Portugal.” 

The district, however, prospered rapidly. The 
Portuguese feudatories and their followers seem to 
have been free from that savage rapacity and faithless¬ 
ness, which so disgraced and hindered the Spanish 
colonies. The fact, that colonization, not gold, was 
their object, may partially account for this difference. 
The whole history of Brazil is a pleasant contrast to 
that of Mexico, Cuba, Florida, and Peru. De Sousa 
was soon appointed governor-general of India, and 
left his captaincy. To the day of his death, never¬ 
theless, he watched over its welfare, sent it supplies, 
and impressed on his lieutenant the same rules of 
justice, moderation, and uprightness that so credit¬ 
ably distinguished his own immediate rule. The 
example of prosperous colonization had been given ; 
and others rapidly followed in Martin de Sousa’s 
steps. His own brother, Pero Lopes de Sousa, 
applied for, and obtained a grant. He took his fifty 


NEW SETTLEMENTS. 


27 


leagues in two allotments: one, S. Amaro, adjoined 
S. Vincent. The other lay much further north, near 
Pernambuco. 

The next captaincy was south of this last, in the 
present province of Minas Geraes, and received the 
name of Espirito Santo. Vasco Fernando de Coutinho 
was the founder. He had amassed a large fortune in 
India. This Portuguese nabob, on his return from 
Hindustan, set about spending in the west, with un¬ 
conquerable activity, the money he had acquired in 
the east. No less than sixty noblemen accompanied 
him as colonists. After some hard fighting with the 
savages, the adventurers justified the name they had 
bestowed by anticipation on the town they were 
going to build—Our Lady of Victory. Four valu¬ 
able sugar establishments, and numerous piosper- 
ous settlements, soon placed this colony on a firm 
footing. 

A fourth captaincy was taken, and successfully 
fostered into a colony by Pedro Tourinho, at Porto 
Seguro, north of the last, and also in the present dis¬ 
trict of Minas Geraes. This was the spot where Cabral 
first proclaimed the supremacy of Portugal. Tourinho 
acted so justly and wisely by the natives, that he 
induced multitudes to settle in villages ; and though 
subsequent oppression and injustice drove the re¬ 
mainder from the country, his prudent arrangements 
averted the consequence of his successor’s folly and 
cruelty. 

Ilheos, a fifth colony, north of the last, in the pre¬ 
sent province of Bahia, was established by Francisco 
Eomeiro, a Spaniard, as the lieutenant of George de 
Figueiredo, to whom the grant was made. 

All the adventurers, however, who obtained grants 


28 


BRAZIL. 


were not so successful as these. Southward, between 
S. Vincent and Espirito Santo, the captaincy of 
Parahiba, where the capital now stands, was given to 
Pedro de Goes. Either his means or his abilities 
were insufficient to contend with the difficulties he 
met. The native tribes would neither be subdued 
nor conciliated, and after seven years’ struggle, they 
succeeded in breaking up and driving away the 
would-be colonists. 

A historical wiiter of some celebrity, John de 
Barros, applied for and got the district of Maranhac. 
Intent on great things, perhaps literary as well as 
pecuniary, he prevailed on two Portuguese gentle¬ 
men to become his partners in the future principality. 
One of the co-governors took the command of a large 
armament, consisting of 10 ships and 900 men, of 
whom 110 were horsemen. But the failure that 
befell Goes from the savages of America, its reefs 
and surf inflicted on the unfortunate writer’s venture. 
All the vessels were wrecked 300 miles south of their 
destination, and the few survivors escaped to the 
nearest settlement with their lives, and no more. 

A second Coutinho, Francis by name, was more 
successful. The San Francisco district where the 
provinces of Pernambuco and Bahia touch, had been 
allotted him, and afterwards Bahia itself, the great 
Bay of All Saints, with its hundred nooks and creeks 
and streams, was added. He was spared the trouble¬ 
some and determined hostility that so effectually 
ruined Goes. Instead of opposition, indeed, he re¬ 
ceived cordial aid, and from a rather singular source. 
Twenty years before, a vessel under the command of 
Diego Alvarez Correa had been wrecked in the bay. 
The savages had attacked the forlorn mariners, and 


CAR AMARU. 


29 


massacred all except the captain. With that singular 
readiness and resource which characterized the dis¬ 
coverers of that age, Correa made the best of his 
situation. Thankful that his life had been spared, 
he exerted himself cheerfully to save articles from 
the wreck. Among them he laid hands on a musket, 
and some powder and shot. A few judicious displays 
of their powers so terrified his captors, that, like the 
men of Melita, they changed their minds, and said 
that he was a god. His assurances that he was only 
terrible to his enemies made them desirous of obtain¬ 
ing such formidable aid in their wars. He was 
accordingly elected a chief, under the name of 
Caramaru, or “the man of fire.” In the first battle 
in which he accompanied his new friends, all the 
enemy ran away at the first discharge. Immediately, 
every chief desired him as a son-in-law. He selected 
the daughter of the principal king, and thenceforth 
was practically supreme over all the district. One 
of the rivers which flow into the bay still bears his 
wife’s name, Paraguassu. The city he built is still 
called by the name he gave it in grateful remembrance 
of his delivery, Sao Salvador. 

The “man of fire” naturally hankered, amid all 
his barbaric splendour, for his own land. The 
opportunity he had longed for occurred at last. A 
French ship appeared in the bay. In her Correa 
and his Indian wife took passage for France. 

At Paris they excited much interest. They were 
feted everywhere. The “ new thing ” to hear and 
tell of, was the Portuguese captain who had an 
American kingdom, and a pagan wife. The young 
Indian girl was baptized by the name of Catharine 
Alvares, after Catharine de’ Medici. The king (Henry 


30 


BRAZIL. 


ii .) himself and his queen were sponsors. Another 
motive, however, besides kindly curiosity was at 
work: bitter national jealousy was as much the 
cause of all these blandishments as philanthropy. 
Nothing could induce the French to let the poor 
Portuguese visit his native land. Whenever he asked 
leave his mouth was stopped with showers of compli¬ 
ments, caresses, and promises. As soon as possible 
he was sent off to his Indian princedom, wife and all, 
in a French expedition. 

But patriotism had outwitted the French. A 
young Portuguese student was returning home from 
college ; by him Correa sent an earnest message to 
his sovereign John in., warning him of the immense 
importance of the province he then ruled, and of the 
French designs. It is probable that this piece of 
news to a great extent produced, or aided in establish¬ 
ing the system of “ donatorios,” by arousing or 
exasperating John’s jealousy of his powerful neigh¬ 
bours. 

Poor Caramaru’s reward was not according to his 
deserts. Coutinho had been an East Indian governor; 
and all that our forefathers thought English nabobs 
were —all that Burke called them, and more, 
the Portuguese rulers of Hindustan were. Nothing 
so utterly destroys all feeling of regret at Portugal’s 
loss of power as the history of her eastern dominion. 
Her miserable subjects in the East Indies felt for 
long years that they were oppressed and helpless. 
Goa and its inquisition more than counterbalanced 
the zeal and devotion of Xavier and such as he. 
The earnest preacher of Christianity was likewise, 
in the eyes of the terror-stricken victims, the herald 
of the most fiendlike system that has perhaps ever 


TYRANNICAL CONDUCT OF COUTINHO. 


31 


appeared on earth. To all the haughty recklessness of 
undoubted superiority and conquest, the Portuguese 
added the ingenious ferocity and lust of blood of the 
most savage propagandism. Political and eccle¬ 
siastical cruelty was exercised without any check. 
The world has seen many vile and dangerous species 
of men, but never a worse than the Portuguese 
nabob, who to all the strength of civilization and 
western energy added all the fanaticism of the 
crusades. 

One of this class was Coutinho. In his eyes the 
half-Indian Portuguese was doubtless no better than 
a savage. That he or his dark-skinned courtiers 
should, however valuable their services might be, 
arrogate any authority, or even any privilege save 
that of being allowed to exist,— that he or they 
should call their land, their souls, or bodies, their 
own, was -what Coutinho did not understand, and 
could not sanction for a moment. After a good 
deal of preliminary bullying and oppression, he sent 
Correa in chains on board ship. But it was not 
the gentle natives of the Carnatic with whom he had 
to deal. Diego’s subjects were the Tupinambas, 
a warlike and independent nation. They had 
borne Coutinho’s arbitrary treatment with difficulty; 
but when their beloved prince was imprisoned by 
his imperious countryman, their wrath broke out. 
They attacked the settlement that Coutinho had 
formed, and, utterly unawed by the arms and dis¬ 
cipline of civilization, stormed it. They killed 
Coutinho, and threatened to massacre the rest. 
Nothing but the restoration of Correa, not only to 
liberty but to absolute sovereignty, appeased these 
loyal subjects. The Portuguese settlement, if such 


32 


BRAZIL. 


it could be called, flourished under the protection of 
Correa and his people. 

Another settlement, at Pernambuco, also struggled 
into existence through dangers and difficulties: A 
Portuguese factory had been taken and garrisoned 
by the crew of a ship from Marseilles. The ship 
was taken by the Portuguese on her return. As 
soon as the news arrived at Lisbon, the king set his 
usual machinery to work. A noble Portuguese 
received, as the reward of his services in India, the 
task of expelling the French from their new con¬ 
quest, and to that end, the grant of a captaincy from 
the San Francisco northward to the Jurazu. Dom 
Duarte Pereira accepted his proconsulate with such 
good-will, that he embarked not only many of his 
relations, but his wife and children. He landed 
at Pernambuco, and set about founding a settlement 
which he named Olinda. The French made com¬ 
mon cause with one tribe: Pereira entered into an 
alliance with another. The horrors of the Canadian 
campaigns were prefigured in this mingled warfare 
of savage and civilized enemies. Pereira and his 
colonists were threatened with destruction. The 
struggle was desperate; but the ill fortune that 
has commonly paralysed French attempts at coloniza¬ 
tion and foreign conquest attended them here. The 
Portuguese succeeded in expelling them from the dis¬ 
trict ; and, under Pereira’s rule, the colony prospered. 

Other minor settlements sprang up in rapid suc¬ 
cession along the shore of the Atlantic. One part 
of the coast of Brazil still remained untenanted 
since Pedro de Goes’ failure, the beautiful bay of 
Bio de Janeiro, in which is now the metropolis of 
the empire. Although it was not settled by the 


DISTANT VIEW OF RIO. 


































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































villegagnon’s expedition to kio. 35 

Portuguese till many years later, indeed not till 
the time of the third governor-general of Brazil, it 
will be well to complete our view of the colonization 
of the whole country by a short sketch of the 
conquest of this important district. 

France lusted greatly after western dominion. All 
her neighbours were profiting, and she got nothing. 
England was beginning to found those hardy com¬ 
munities in the north of the new world which have 
expanded into so majestic an empire. Spain was 
conquering Mexico, Peru, and the islands, sending 
home cargoes of sugar and precious woods, beginning 
one of the largest trades of these days, that of tobacco, 
freighting galleons with silver ingots and bags of 
gold-dust, and fishing for pearls in the Pacific. 
Portugal was founding economically and efficiently 
the mightiest independent state south of the equator. 
Any suggestion, any proposal, however desperate, 
that promised successful rivalry of these achieve¬ 
ments found favour in France. 

There was a knight of Malta at the French court 
somewhat notorious for his recklessness, gallantry, 
and daring—Nicolas Durand de Villegagnon. He 
had commanded the galley that had carried Mary of 
Scotland to her uneasy northern throne ; he had 
volunteered in one of the many Portuguese expedi¬ 
tions to Brazil, and had been deeply impressed with 
the beauty and natural advantages of the bay of 
Rio ; and now he conceived the brilliant idea of 
founding a French settlement in the heart of the 
Portuguese dominions. The Protestants happened 
to be uppermost just then, in the deadly struggle 
between the League and the Huguenots ; so Ville¬ 
gagnon applied to Coligny. The old soldier was 

d 2 


36 


BRAZIL. 


taken with the daring of the scheme ; and the artful 
Frenchman suggested that the proposed colony 
would he a place of refuge for distressed Protestants, 
and urged on the admiral the glory of rescuing a 
part of the new world from the spiritual slavery 
inflicted on it by the Portuguese. He succeeded 
perfectly, and, with Coligny’s aid and influence, a 
large number of Huguenot colonists were collected. 
Three vessels were obtained from the king, Henry n.; 
and in the year 1555, the expedition sailed from 
Havre de Grace. A storm drove it back to Dieppe, 
and most of the noblemen and gentlemen, being very 
sea-sick, gave up. The remainder of the colonists, 
after a long and perilous voyage, landed at their 
destination. Their fort was named Coligny, in 
honour of their patron. Nothing could have been 
more favourable than the commencement of their 
enterprise. The neighbouring tribes hated the 
Portuguese, and had traded long with the French 
merchant-men, or, as the Portuguese called them, 
pirates. Hundreds assembled to greet the new 
comers. The bay blazed with bonfires. The French 
imagination took fire. The whole continent was 
to be their own ; and with something of bombast 
they named their new acquisition La France Ant- 
arctique. 

It was not, indeed, a light matter. Seventy years 
before the “Mayflower” entered Boston Harbour, 
Protestants, with liberty, religion, and industry 
strong within them, were founding a settlement in 
the New World on the principles that God made 
men free in body and soul. Brazil is a tolerant 
state, but it is Roman Catholic. • It narrowly missed 
being Protestant. 


A PROTESTANT COLONY. 


37 


The three ships returned for more emigrants. 
Great interest was roused among all Protestant states 
and churches. Geneva sent two ministers and four¬ 
teen students to the western land of Beulah. The 
anxious, harassed French Huguenots embarked by 
hundreds, and a great expedition prepared to sail. 
Jf omens had had any weight with them they would 
never have started. The internecine strife between 
the mighty church and her rebellious children was 
increasing daily in virulence. The populace at Har- 
fleur rose in a body and tried to destroy the fleet and 
the colonists ; and one of their leaders was killed. Off 
the Brazilian coast a Portuguese squadron attacked 
them, but was beaten off. They arrived, however, 
safely, fondly hoping for rest, peace, and “ freedom 
to worship God.” 

They were disappointed. Whether, astutely 
watching the evolutions of the struggle in France, 
Yillegagnon began to think that the Protestant cause 
was ruined, and that he had better secure a favour¬ 
able reception into the bosom of the true church,— 
whether he was simply weary of his governorship 
and indulged his true nature,—whether it was an 
honest outbreak of Eomanist intolerance, hitherto 
repressed,—or whether, as is perhaps most probable, 
it was the result of that variable temper, unsettled 
in purpose and impatient of continuous and perse¬ 
vering effort in one direction, that has so often 
ruined the best endeavours of the quickest-witted 
people in Europe, is almost impossible to say; but 
Yillegagnon took it into his head, as the governor of 
a Protestant colony founded on Protestant principles, 
by Protestant men and women, and with Protestant 
money and influence, to persecute Protestants. The 


38 


BRAZIL. 


governor fulfilled his new character of persecutor 
so well that the Huguenots regretted the League and 
Guise’s dragoons. They begged to return. A crazy 
ship was offered them, with hardly any provisions. 
Of those who accepted the offer, many died of hunger; 
the remainder, after enduring the extremity of 
misery, arrived in France in time to stop a fresh 
expedition of 10,000 French Protestants and many 
Flemings. Those who remained in the colony the 
governor harassed, hunted, and executed, till many 
fled to the Portuguese as a last resource. 

The colony had received its death-blow. The 
French government were too deeply and interest¬ 
ingly engaged in hanging, burning, and hunting 
down their best subjects to care about a Protestant 
colony. Finding it utterly neglected by its parent 
state, the Portuguese government made cautious in¬ 
vestigations, and then struck the mortal blow at once. 
In 1560, the governor Mem de Sa, accompanied by 
Nobrega, the provincial of the Brazilian Jesuits, 
whose efforts had been untiringly directed to the 
destruction of this eye-sore, attacked the chief fort, 
S. Sebastian, demolished the works, and carried off 
the artillery and stores. A feeble attempt was made 
some time after to restore the place, and a rambling, 
though ferocious sort of bush-warfare was carried on 
for some years. But in 1567, on S. Sebastian’s day, 
Mem de Sa appeared again before the fort, stormed 
it, took all the French prisoners, and destroyed every 
Indian he found in it. 

The name S. Sebastian was changed for that of the 
bay, Rio de Janeiro, and the place became a Portuguese 
settlement. Beyond the insignificant, and, except for 
the deportation of troublesome politicians, compara- 


SPANISH INTRUDERS—FEUDS. 


39 


tively useless colony of Cayenne, France does not 
now possess a foot of land in either continent of 
America. 

To return, however. From the mouth of the 
Amazon to La Plata, king John and his councillors 
had succeeded, by means of the “ donatarios,” in stud¬ 
ding the whole coast with settlements more or less 
flourishing. A rough and prompt sort of justice was 
administered by each of the governors or their sub¬ 
ordinates. Extravagant license, anarchy, and de¬ 
pravity began here and there to be checked; com¬ 
merce increased; the savages were conciliated or 
extirpated ; above all, the French were, for the 
time, driven off. All danger, which was a bond of 
union, was passing away. Danger, which might be a 
cause of dissension, was approaching behind them. 
Into Paraguay, from Peru, Spaniards began to come. 
From the same quarter Orellana, a Spanish leader, 
sailed down the Amazon ; and against Spaniards the 
colonists had none of that antipathy that so united 
them against the French. The bitter contempt and 
hatred of the Castilian for “the Lusitanian kind, the 
lowest of the low,” is of comparatively recent growth. 
Thousands of Spaniards were colonists in the Portu¬ 
guese settlements; some even of the leaders were 
Spaniards: the Indians hardly knew the difference. 

But the greatest danger and evil was the very con¬ 
stitution of the captaincies. The system was only 
calculated for times of constant and urgent danger. 
There was no pretence at federal union; and the 
allegiance they all owed to the sovereign only served 
to give them a tribunal before which they could 
effectually exasperate each other by mutual recrimi¬ 
nation. Thorough-going feudality is suicidal. The 


40 


BRAZIL. 


commission of absolute authority to a variety of in¬ 
dependent hands must either destroy the supreme 
authority, or the supreme authority must destroy 
the feudatories. Examples are numberless. The 
very satraps to whom we have compared the Portu¬ 
guese feudatories, were continually marching into 
each other’s districts, or up to the very gates of the 
great king, till the revolution that consolidated the 
whole power in one hand, and made them little more 
than lord-lieutenants. Till the wars of the Eoses 
had almost destroyed the savage barons of England, 
nothing but her insular position preserved her from 
foreign dominion. The history of Poland, as long as 
she had a history, was a mere oscillation between 
the despotism of a monarch, and the anarchy of the 
nobles. Federal union did not preserve Switzerland 
herself from intestine discord. In our own time, it 
has not prevented the States of America from trem¬ 
bling on the verge of internecine war. 

Brazil was drifting rapidly toward the state in 
which Poland was in 1772. The great feudatories, 
as their dominions extended and prospered, began to 
wrangle and quarrel. Each settlement was abso¬ 
lutely dependent on the will or the temper of its petty 
sovereign. The tribunal of appeal was too distant to 
be of any avail. The tyranny of one governor drove 
his subjects into the dominions of another. The 
shelter they obtained there was forthwith a cause of 
strife between the two colonies. The absence or 
weakness of another permitted such frightful abuses, 
oppression, and anarchy, that his dominions were a 
nuisance to the rest. Jealous eyes were watching 
them all. 

The king of Portugal saw the importance of the 


A GOVERNOR-GENERAL APPOINTED. 


41 


crisis. He was one of the most acute and energetic 
sovereigns of that time. He acted at the right 
moment. Just as anarchy and misgovernment called 
for the interference of the sovereign power, and 
before they had impaired its authority, he employed 
it wisely, decidedly, and successfully. He revoked 
every power he had granted to the feudatories ; but 
he at the same time soothed them by solemnly con¬ 
firming their possession. All their jurisdiction was 
transferred to a governor-general, and a college of 
ouvidors, or lieutenant-governors. The governor- 
general was viceroy. The ouvidors took the. place 
of the feudatories in the several districts. A mild 
and regular system of taxation was substituted for 
the capricious extortions of the original captains; 
and to strengthen the governor-general’s hands, all 
the colonists were enrolled in a militia, immediately 
under his orders. The chief towns received mu¬ 
nicipal constitutions. 

Little historical remark has been excited by this 
event; but it would be difficult to find in all history 
an exertion of power so well-timed, so moderate, and 
so absolutely successful. Its success, indeed, was 
so complete and so quiet that it has been passed by. 
The assumption of the East India Company’s do¬ 
minion by the British government in the last century, 
finally consummated in 1859, perhaps offers the 
nearest parallel. 

Thome de Sousa was appointed first governor- 
general, in 1549. His first instructions and first care 
were to build a strong central city as his seat of 
government: he selected Bahia. His authority was 
submitted to, and his work proceeded, apparently 
without a murmur from the feudatories. Some of the 


42 


BRAZIL, 


Indians gave him trouble. Old Caramaru, steady in 
his loyalty to his king and countrymen, disposed of 
these. Some of the dregs of the Portuguese settlers 
grew tumultuous ; but their tumults found no favour 
in the eyes of the more respectable colonists, and the 
governor easily crushed them. The most serious 
opposition arose from some abandoned priests. The 
devout governor dared not lay a finger on them, his 
Jesuit companions had no jurisdiction over them, 
and their troublesome outbreaks and machinations 
were not finally put a stop to till the first bishop of 
Brazil came out, in 1552. 

Under the first four viceroys—De Sousa, Duarte da 
Costa, Mem de Sa, and Diego da Veiga, all able and 
moderate men—regular government was firmly esta¬ 
blished. The colony, united and comparatively 
peaceful, prospered rapidly; the tide of immigration 
set in more and more strongly, its imports began to 
increase perceptibly, and its export trade to show 
signs of life. 

The colony started fair, with better prospects than 
many of our own. It will be our object in the 
ensuing chapters to trace shortly its progress, trials, 
and vicissitudes, till it ceased to be a colony, and 
became, first a kingdom, and then an empire. 


(. 43 ) 


CHAPTER II. 

THE HISTORY OF BRAZIL, FROM THE DEATH OF KING SEBASTIAN 
TO THE MIGRATION OF THE ROYAL FAMILY. 

Death of king Sebastian— Portugal subject to Spain—Brazil attacked as a 
Spanish possession—Dutch conquest—Maurice of Nassau—Revolt of Portugal 
from Spain—Revolt in Brazil—Its failure—Vieyra—Expulsion of the Dutch- - 
French attack on Rio—Peace—The Paulistas—Gold-finding and slave-hunting 
—The Gold mines—Diamonds—The Indians—The Jesuits — Marque? de 
Pombal—His enmity to the Jesuits—Accusations against them—Their expul¬ 
sion—Pombal’s improvements—Companies—Monopolies—The feudatories— 
The mines—Religious toleration—Pombal’s fall—Approach of the great 
revolution—Its effect on Brazil—Tumults—Portugal oppressed by France 
and Spa in—Flight of the royal family to Brazil. 

In August, 1578, king Sebastian fell fighting in 
Africa: his uncle, cardinal Henrique, the last king 
of the old line of the Capets, died in 1580 : and 
with them departed the vigour and patriotic energy 
that had distinguished the rulers of Portugal. The 
little kingdom was absorbed into the most powerful 
monarchy that has perhaps ever existed in Europe. 
Philip the Second of Spain quietly added it to his 
own gigantic dominion, crushing, with scornful ease, 
the few struggles that the people, without either king 
or army, attempted to make. 

To the ruin that attended the lesser state on its 
absorption into the greater one, was added the im¬ 
pending ruin of the conqueror. Already “foreign 
conquest,” as has been said, “had begun tb eat into 
every part of that gigantic monarchy on which the 
sun never set.” The hatred and bitter hostility of 
the nations to Spain was abundantly extended to 


44 


BRAZIL. 


Portugal and her colonies as soon as they became 
part of the Spanish empire. Brazil did not escape. 

England, the persevering and deadly enemy of 
Philip, led the way. Witherington took and plun¬ 
dered Bahia only five years after the king of Spain’s 
usurpation of the Portuguese crown: Cavendish 
burned S. Vincent, Lancaster took Olinda. The 
colony was unable to resist the unceasing attacks of 
the British squadrons and buccaneers that prowled 
about the coasts and harbours. The mother country 
was no longer able to help, for she was no longer a 
country, but a province of Spain, and Spain’s hands 
were full. 

The English were-not. the only ones. In 1612, a 
French expedition attacked the island of Marajo, and 
succeeded in keeping possession of it: it was not 
till 1618 that they were ejected. So serious was this 
warning considered, that Maranhao, the province in 
which the island was, and Para were made into a 
separate district, with a governor and militia of its 
own, to meet any future attempts of the sort. 

But the worst enemies of all were the Dutch. 
Wealthy and powerful companies of merchants were 
pushing the conquests of the sturdy republic in every 
direction, with the same pertinacity and success that 
raised our own East India Company from the owners of 
two factories to be the mightiest princes of the East. 
A Dutch East India Company was trading, and con¬ 
quering, and founding factories among the Spice 
Islands of the Eastern Archipelago. A West India 
Company in 1624 sent a fleet to attack Brazil; the 
suddenness of their onslaught took the Brazilians by 
surprise; Bahia, the seat of government, yielded 
without a blow. 


DUTCH INVASION. 


45 


The district of Bahia was the strongest part of the 
empire. Caramaru’s influence had survived him. 
The province was full of a mingled race, with more 
of the sentiment of patriotism than is common to 
mere colonists. Portuguese, Mamelukes, and Indians 
joined in the war. The Dutch, after a gallant struggle, 
were obliged to capitulate. The mutual respect en¬ 
gendered among the victors during their common 
war shows its effects to the present day. The Indian 
chiefs were loaded with compliments and honours by 
their European fellow-countrymen, and the gentry of 
Bahia exhibit at this moment more of the marks of 
mingled races than those of any other district of 
Brazil. ^ 

But Holland had not given in. In 1630 they chose 
another point of attack, and this time with better 
success. Olinda yielded after a feeble resistance; 
and thence the foreign invaders began slowly to 
extend southward and inland. In a short time, 
prince Maurice of Nassau arrived at Pernambuco 
with a powerful armament and full powers as governor. 
Under this able and energetic leader, the Dutch 
conquest began to take firm root, and to threaten the 
whole empire. His high station and distinguished 
character overawed his subordinates, and quelled the 
internal dissensions that were hampering the expe¬ 
dition. 

In four years from his arrival, Spain had lost the 
whole of Brazil north of the S. Francisco, except 
the district of Para, and also the province of Sergipe. 
Maurice was no mere adventurer. As tract after 
tract of country came into his possession, he spent 
every farthing he could spare in substantial improve¬ 
ments. The revenues of his government, the plunder 


46 


BRAZIL. 


from the Portuguese, his own private fortune, went 
to build bridges, make roads; fortify harbours, and 
beautify towns. He laboured to conciliate the Por¬ 
tuguese he subdued. He tolerated all colours,'all 
races, and all creeds. Mild, just, and merciful, his 
one idea, to found a great free empire in the west, 
grew into existence under his hands with surprising 
rapidity. 

But this was not at all that the Dutch West 
India Company wanted. They desired profit, not an 
expensive empire that absorbed all its own revenues, 
and more. The exhortations and complaints that the 
English East India Company sent to Warren Hast¬ 
ings, the Dutch West India Company sent to Maurice. 
Warren Hastings hesitated between the right and 
the expedient, and took the latter; prince Maurice 
chose the former. He was a noble viceroy, but a 
most expensive and unprofitable governor-general for 
a company. In 1644 he was recalled, and with him 
departed the prospect of a Dutch-American empire. 

In all justice and reason, if his operations had been 
only an attack on Portugal, or rather Spain, he ought 
to have been recalled three years before; for the 
Portuguese, exasperated by the tyranny of their 
Spanish rulers, and emboldened by the distracted 
and dismembered state of the empire, had just before 
1641 succeeded in ejecting the foreign viceroy from 
Portugal, and had crowned John of Braganza, a 
collateral descendant of their old royal family. 
Spain, not Portugal, was Holland’s enemy, and the 
republic had accordingly made peace with John. 
Notice of this had been sent to Maurice; but he 
cared little about home orders of this sort, and 
correctly judging that his disobedience would not be 


KESISTANCE TO THE DUTCH. 


47 


counted a great crime, pursued his career of conquest. 
As has been seen before in the world, the pocket is 
occasionally tenderer than the conscience. The lack 
of remittances ruined the general who had been easily 
pardoned for carrying on war against an ally. 

Portugal was once more a kingdom—hut not the 
old kingdom. So weakened was she, that her feeble 
grasp had well nigh lost the noble dependency that 
was yet to he the asylum of her royal house, and is 
now the proudest memorial of her past greatness. 
Though peace was made with Holland, though 
Maurice of Nassau was recalled, it was but narrowly 
that Brazil was saved. 

All the north was under Dutch rule, and Portugal 
was in no condition to assert her rights. All the 
southern settlements had tasted the sweet as well as 
the bitter of self-dependence. Portugal and Spain 
had cast them off,—why should they not remain their 
own masters ? 

The turbulent Paulistas spoke first. They had 
fought their own battles for years against Dutch, 
Spaniards, Portuguese, and any one they chose. 
They had flocks, and herds, and mines, and slaves; 
they were rich, and increased in goods. What was 
Portugal to them, that they should be transferred 
from one king to another at any one else’s will ? 
They would have a king of their own. They seized 
a rich citizen, Amador Bueno, and shouted “ Long 
live king Amador!” One word, and the empire of 
Brazil had begun then. “ Long live king John the 
fourth!” cried the loyal colonist, and rushed head¬ 
long into a convent for safety. 

Rio and Santos were ready to follow S. Paulo; 
but no other leader was ready, and all three re- 


48 


BRAZIL. 


mained Portuguese. The government at Bahia 
implored the king for aid; but the king was totally 
unable to take any advantage of this returning tide 
of loyalty. Had it not been for the suicidal folly of 
Maurice’s successors, the Dutch would perhaps never 
have been ejected. Every rule he had laid down was 
reversed. He had spent all the revenues on the 
country: they sent some home to keep the company 
quiet, and embezzled the rest. He had conciliated 
and even employed the Portuguese: they turned 
them out, and insulted them. He had treated the 
natives justly and kindly: their little finger was 
thicker than the loins of the Portuguese governors. 

Within one year from his recall, the insurrection 
broke out with irrepressible violence. A native of 
Madeira, John Vieyra, gave the signal. The whole 
country rose. The Dutch were driven into their 
fortifications; and a bloody guerilla warfare raged 
over the whole north of Brazil. The disciplined and 
courageous republicans fought well. Their antago¬ 
nists were without arms, without money, and without 
discipline. The conjuncture was critical. Help 
from Holland might crush the revolt: help from 
Portugal might destroy the Dutch. 

Vieyra sailed to Portugal; but help was not to be 
got from the enfeebled government, or the empty 
exchequer. The clever Madeiran conceived that the 
agency which was so powerful against Portugal, 
might be employed for her. A company had nearly 
conquered Brazil: why should not a company 
recover it ? 

In 1649 the Brazil Company of Portugal sent out 
its first fleet. The scale was turned. After a 
desperate and sanguinary struggle, the gallant Vieyra 


FRENCH ATTACK. 


49 


received the keys of Olinda, the last Dutch strong¬ 
hold, and transferred them to the lieutenant of the 
king. 

When they had lost all, the Hollanders made a 
solemn treaty of peace with Portugal, and renounced 
all their right and interest in any of her dominions, 
especially Brazil. The empire, all hut lost by the 
feebleness of the home government, abandoned even 
by the authorities of Bahia, under express orders 
from Portugal, had been saved by the folly of the 
invaders, and the exertions of the colonists. Until 
the day when it became an independent state, under 
a prince of the royal house, the sovereign of Portugal 
has never again been in any danger of losing Brazil. 

Brazil had one more storm from abroad to weather. 
The French had heard of gold having been discovered 
in the interior; and cupidity and revenge cried 
aloud for a share. An expedition, commanded by 
Du Clerc, attacked Bio de Janeiro in 1710. De Castro, 
the governor, blundered into a complete victory. 
Half the French were destroyed, and the rest, with 
their leader, made prisoners. The cruelty with 
which the captives were treated was so great, that 
even private individuals in France begged to be 
allowed to subscribe to a second expedition to avenge 
their unfortunate countrymen. The government 
accepted their offers, and the squadron was placed 
under the command of the ablest French admiral of 
the day—Duguay Trouin. He easily defeated the 
savage and imbecile De Castro, and stormed the city 
of Bio. To this day the marks of his cannon can be 
seen on the walls of the convent of S. Bento. The 
town was ransomed for 610,000 cruzados, 500 cases 
of sugar, and provisions sufficient to victual the 

E 


50 


BRAZIL. 


French fleet home. The subscribers to the expedition 
netted 92 per cent on their capital, though several of 
the ships went down on their homeward voyage, 
with 1200 men, and the most valuable part of the 
booty. 

But France, and indeed Europe, were too busily 
engaged to trouble Brazil again. No other hostile 
fleet has ever entered the great harbour of Bio since 

Trouin left it. -■ 

With peace, returned prosperity to the rising 
empire. Not that Portugal was then in any way 
eminent for liberality, far-sightedness, or vigour. 
Nothing but feeble intolerance characterized the 
home government. But the feebleness that injured 
Portugal was a blessing to Brazil; and the intoler¬ 
ance and tyranny could only be exercised on the 
dependents of the vice-regal court. Their abject 
weakness drove the government to the practice of 
what may be fairly called the greatest political 
discovery of modern times: they let their subjects 
alone; and the subjects were perfectly willing to be 
called subjects, and to be complimented on their 
loyalty, if only their king and his governors took 
their tribute, and did not interfere. 

The rulers dared not offend any man of wealth or 
note ; and any humbler discontented spirit simply 
moved off into the interior. Every one had more 
profitable business on hand than court intrigues or 
rebellions. The whole country had the greatest 
safety-valve for the fermenting matter of a busy and 
excitable people—elbow-room. It has saved the 
United States from bloody intestine strife; it saved 
Brazil for the king of Portugal, and from the fate of 
Mexico. 


POPULAR INDEPENDENCE. 


51 


And so the people grew and multiplied, and gene¬ 
ration succeeded generation. All they knew of the 
sovereign government consistedof one or two irritating 
taxes on industry, the fragment of dues and royalties 
on certain articles, and the knowledge that a Portu¬ 
guese governor lived at Bahia. Their towns governed 
themselves; so did the districts, practically ; and 
slight as were the restraints, there was the wilder¬ 
ness—or, more accurately, an uncleared garden of 
Eden—westward for those who fretted at them. 

They had learned, during their abandonment by 
the mother country, to he a rough, self-helpful set. 
Many of them were of partially Indian descent. 
They knew little, and cared less, about religion, 
refinement, or the amenities of social life; and so 
long as they were personally unoppressed, they took 
little heed of any claims or theories of government. 
The viceroy was despotic, and acted like a despot 
often enough towards the Bahians. The government 
courts of justice were either incapable or corrupt, or 
both. The pay of the public functionaries was so 
miserably small as to form a ready excuse for the 
peculation that mismanagement permitted; but the 
great mass of the Brazilians worked their sugar-farms, 
grew their manioc, cut down their dye-wood, and 
tanned their hides, or occasionally amused themselves 
with a raid on the nearest Indian nation, heedless of, 
and unaffected by, tyrannous governors, unjust judges, 
or starving and stealing officers. Abuses and evils 
that would have made the gutters of an old Greek 
city run with blood, and would have sent some Wat 
Tyler, or Jack Cade, up to London in a week, with 
20,000 “ honest poor workmen” at his back, passed over 
the sparse population of the great new empire harmless. 

e 2 


52 


BRAZIL. 


The district most characteristic of this new and 
independent vitality, was the province of Sao Panlo. 
It was to Brazil very much what the city of London 
has been to England. Always foremost, always 
busy, meddlesome and energetic, possessing the 
finest part of the land, the lofty plain of Parana, and 
the seat of education—the Jesuit college of S. Paulo— 
it was the richest, most liberal, most independent 
state of the empire. Already it had almost erected 
itself into an independent kingdom. So strong and 
wilful was it, that the authorities left it very much 
to itself; and its self-government was almost re¬ 
publican. Indians and Europeans had largely inter¬ 
married, and a race of physically, and in some respects 
mentally powerful sons of the soil, helped to place 
the district, which to them was all that Scotland was 
to Wallace, or Sparta to Leonidas, far above its 
fellows. All superfluous energy, as was natural, was 
expended in meddling. No settlement could get into 
a commotion, no revenue officer could be robbed of 
the salt duties, no expedition could be planned to 
search for gold, or to hunt slaves, but the Portuguese 
and the Mamelukes of Sao Paulo had a finger in it. 

They had two great objects—to find gold, and to 
make slaves of the Indians ; and they pursued both 
with untiring energy, disobeying and threatening 
the Jesuit fathers with very little respect, whenever 
they interfered. Whenever a trace of gold was 
reported anywhere, a Paulistan expedition started 
for Eldorado forthwith. Whenever the price of 
labour rose too high, a gang of slave-hunters travelled 
into the wilderness for Indians. And they were not 
particular about its being the wilderness. In 1629, 
they attacked the Jesuit settlement in Paraguay, 


LICENCE OF THE PAULISTAS—MINES. 


53 


though that country was nominally a Spanish colony; 
and for a long time it was to them as the Guinea 
Coast is now to the Spaniards. The tribes in Minas 
Geraes, Goyaz, Mato Grosso, and even Bolivia were 
only too familiar with the Paulistas. 

The gold mines they discovered at first were not 
rich; but the appetite was whetted, and expedition 
after expedition went wandering after the precious 
metal into the interior. As they got further into 
the heart of the country the harvest became richer. 
So far at last did they penetrate, and so successful 
were their discoveries of gold, that it began to be 
not worth while to return. Expeditions began to 
take the form of colonies. The excitement spread; 
and the fever we have seen in our own times, and 
which has sent, and even now sends, thousands of all 
classes, from the nobleman’s son to the ploughboy, 
to the license and ferocity of California, the hard¬ 
ships of the Bendigo diggings, and the inclement 
banks of Fraser’s river, infected all classes in Brazil. 
Clerks, gentlemen, nobles, sugar-farmers, government 
employes, swarmed to the mines of the Paulistas. 
Even a governor of Bio, now rapidly rising to an 
equality with Bahia, decamped to seek his fortune 
as a digger at the richest spot. 

This tract received, and still retains, the name of 
Minas Geraes (general mines). It was in the next 
century separated from Sao Paulo, and erected into 
a separate province ; so also were three others—Bio 
Grande do Sul, Goyaz, and Mato Grosso. 

So far back as 1618, during the Spanish dominion, 
Philip hi. had made laws and regulations for the 
miners of Brazil. As there were then no miners to 
speak of, these enactments were of little use. When 


54 


BRAZIL. 


the Paulistas began their discoveries, they cared very 
little for any law whatever, human or Divine, and 
the Spanish statutes remained a dead letter. As the 
mines grew into colonies, however, the disorder 
and abuses became so frightful, that the adventurers 
themselves were willing to submit to some sort of 
regulation and restraint. Wealthy colonists had 
applied for, and obtained large grants of the mine 
countries; so large, and so many, that they nearly 
monopolized the whole. They sublet to tenants: 
the adventurers ejected the tenants. They tried to 
farm the produce: the Paulistas refused to pay the 
royalties. 

In 1702 the importance of the mines had become 
so manifest, and the anarchy and disorder so ruinous, 
that the government interfered. New regulations 
were made, and submitted to. 

A “ Guarda Mor,” or superintendent of the mines, 
was appointed. All civil and military power was 
vested in him. He appointed a treasurer. Each of 
these might appoint a certain number of deputies. 
They were sufficiently paid by being allowed to 
mine on their own account. The crown received 
a fifth of all the yield, and the whole of the produce 
of a part of each grant. No person was allowed a 
fresh grant till he had exhausted any he held. None 
but miners might enter the district, except the 
drovers of cattle from Bahia. None might leave 
the mines till he had paid his fifths, and got a 
certificate. Only one or two roads were allowed 
to be used, except for cattle. Even slaves might 
only be imported from Rio, and that by one of two 
particular routes. No idlers were allowed. Any 
person not engaged in mining was removed at once. 



EYIL EFFECT OF THE MINES. 


55 


Goldsmiths especially, whether free or slaves, were 
prohibited altogether from coming. If any miner 
delayed working his allotment for forty days, he lost 
his grant entirely, one third being given to the 
informer, and the remainder reverting to the crown. 
All these regulations were enforced by stringent 
penalties. 

The evils and suffering must have been great 
indeed to induce the miners of Sao Paulo to submit 
to such rules as these They seem to have acquiesced, 
nevertheless, without disturbance. 

The gold-fever half ruined the empire: The 
sugar estates were given up : the* court tried to protect 
the trade, but with the usual success of protective 
measures of this kind. Brazil had supplied all 
Europe with sugar before the gold discoveries : after 
them, nearly the whole trade fell into the hands of 
the English, who had no mines in their American 
settlements. 

Slaves could not be captured or imported fast 
enough. The fever that was damaging the Europeans 
was the salvation of the Indians. The strong and 
patient negroes from Africa were worth far more, 
even allowing for the cost of their transport, than the 
sullen, rebellious, and physically weaker aborigines. 
Even the Paulistas, their persevering enemies, began 
to admit this, and the natives were left unmolested 
before their freedom was declared and guaranteed by 
the government. 

The gold-mania was beginning to cure itself, by the 
increase of the numbers whom it brought to the 
country, and the gradual change of the mines from 
an adventurous speculation to a regular and legitimate 
trade, when a new excitement threatened a repetition 


56 


BRAZIL. 


of all the mischief. In 1710, some Minas miners, 
in washing the river mud and sand for gold, found 
among the refuse and in the tangled roots of the 
grass little stones that took their fancy. They kept 
them for some years. An ouvidor (magistrate) of 
the district, who had passed some time in the East 
Indies, happened to see them, and recognised them at 
once for diamonds of the purest water. A further 
search soon showed that the country round was, as it 
still is, one of the richest on the earth in these beauti¬ 
ful gems, as well as in many others. The government, 
as soon as it heard of the discovery, laid hands on 
the whole territory, and farmed it on such oppressive 
terms, that what might have been a source of wealth 
produced only ruin. Whatever excitement had 
arisen soon died away. The gold-fever itself was 
abating ; and the stimulus it had given to popula¬ 
tion and discovery had changed the face and prospects 
of the empire almost as completely as the same 
causes have changed Australia. Great towns had 
sprung up in deserts, and in the heart of what were 
huge forests; roads had been made where paths 
had not existed ; tracts of country were dotted with 
villages; rivers were spanned with bridges ; jungles 
were cleared into fields and pastures, where nothing 
but the beast of the wilderness, and tribes almost as 
savage, had ever wandered before. 

The revenues and the power of the government 
had increased enormously; and with the ability 
arose the desire for internal reform and arrange- 
ment. 

The first matter taken into consideration was the 
state of the Indians. The Jesuit missionaries had 
been urging their claims for years. Wilberforce and 


JESUITS AND THE INDIANS. 


57 


Clarkson did not labour more indefatigably for 
negroes than the Jesuit fathers of Sao Paulo for 
Tupinambas and Tupinoquins,—and they were well 
entitled to be heard. While their countrymen had 
been hunting the natives down with bloodhounds, 
and chaining those they caught alive in gangs for the 
mines, until many of the nations were all but exter¬ 
minated, they had been for years toiling for their 
good and their freedom. They lived with their 
people. They followed their customary system in 
barbarous countries: the Indians were collected 
into S “ald6as” (villages), or small semi-ecclesias¬ 
tical communities, over which the Jesuits had both 
temporal and spiritual authority. The effect of the 
Jesuit system on its unhappy patients was what 
bodily and spiritual enthralment always has produced 
and always will—those who do not break this yoke 
from off their neck it crushes. 

The priests governed their catechumens as Louis 
xiv. governed his family. They were never allowed 
to act for themselves ; they never were taught to 
think for themselves ; and like the wretched German 
prisoner, who, when his chains were taken off, fell 
prostrate on the floor of his dungeon, so, when the 
Indians of the aldeas were left to themselves, they 
fell back into hopeless barbarism. As Hugh Miller 
acutely remarks, “ All experience serves to show, 
that, when a tribe of men falls beneath a certain level, 
it cannot come into competition with civilized man, 
pressing outwards from his old centres to possess the 
earth, without becoming extinct before him.” This 
doom the meddling, though, perhaps, well-meant 
tyranny of the Jesuits fearfully accelerated for many 
of the Brazilian Indians. Their very religious 






58 


BRAZIL. 


teaching was of little avail to elevate or to strengthen, 
for it began at the wrong end. The outward and 
visible sign was enforced with rigorous monotony: 
the inward and spiritual grace was forgotten and 
disregarded. 

The Jesuits worked manfully and struggled per- 
severingly against all other oppression of the natives. 
So long as body, soul, and spirit were abjectly 
subject to their own mild but deadening sway, they 
resented all other interference; and against the 
enslavement of the aborigines and the cruel and 
sanguinary oppression of the colonists they fought 
unceasingly, and at last successfully. 

As the increasing importation of negroes from 
Africa lessened the market value of Indian slaves, 
the government became more willing to listen to the 
fathers’ earnest pleading : they obtained at last a 
statutory confirmation and acknowledgment of the 
freedom of the natives, and their entire equality 
with the whites. 

Their own dominion, however, over Europeans or 
Indians was drawing to a close. The reins of 
power in Portugal had come into the hands of the 
boldest and most astute minister that ever has directed 
her councils—Sebastian Joseph Carvalho,Marquez de 
Pombal; and he was the deadly enemy of the whole 
order. Next to the old nobles who had tried to 
hinder his marriage, and sneered at him as a hand¬ 
some adventurer, and the Dominican Inquisitors who 
interfered with his plans, and endeavoured to sup¬ 
plant him in the favour of the king, he detested the 
Jesuits. They had thwarted some of his schemes of 
reform at home, and obstructed his brother, whom he 
had appointed governor of one of the Brazilian 


OVERTHROW OF JESUIT INFLUENCE. 59 

provinces, Maranhao, in obeying some of his orders. 
Carvalho was not the man to forget. The king, 
Joseph i., had the fullest confidence in him; and he 
determined to ruin them. The first blow was struck 
in Brazil: all temporal power in the aldeas of two 
districts, Maranhao and Para, was taken from them. 
There were twenty-eight aldeas: one was made a 
city; eighteen were made towns, and the rest 
villages. The towns were put under the government 
of justices, for which office Indians were preferred, if 
there were any competent: the villages were left 
under the command of the chiefs : the adjacent 
lands were divided among the natives, and declared 
heritable property: These orders were strictly 
carried out by his brother. 

The spiritual authority of the Jesuits was the next 
object of attack. Pombal placed all the aldeas under 
the direct jurisdiction of the bishop, and appointed 
clerical directors to superintend the first attempt of 
the Indians at self-government. The directors were 
to instruct and civilize them, and, above all things, 
to act upon and everywhere inculcate the perfect 
equality of the Europeans and the natives, and as far 
as possible to encourage intermarriages between the 
races. They had no immediate temporal authority, 
but might appeal to the governor if anything went 
wrong. They had a direct interest in the prosperity 
of the Indian settlements, being entitled to a sixth of 
all clear profits. 

The new system worked well. The complaints 
of the Jesuits were disregarded ; for the order was 
no longer what it was. A deep and settled aversion 
to it was spreading rapidly. Carvalho took a step 
forward, and extended the new regulations to the 


60 


BRAZIL. 


whole of Brazil. The Indians began to improve. 
They were still subject to some of the oppressive 
corvees, or compulsory labour, inflicted on them by 
the earlier colonists ; but more and more they took 
their place as an integral part of the commonwealth. 
They mingled more freely with their white fellow- 
subjects ; intermarriage became common; troops 
were raised among them; and here and there, the 
more intelligent began to fill public offices. But 
Carvalho was not satisfied with this victory. He 
determined to expel the Jesuits from the country 
altogether. Crimes, or rather accusations sufficient 
were soon found. 

In 1750, Spain and Portugal had made some 
arrangements concerning their respective territories 
in South America. One of them was, that in consi¬ 
deration of Spain’s ceding the districts of Paraguay 
to Portugal, Portugal should give up a small neigh¬ 
bouring tract to Spain. This latter had been colonized 
by the Jesuits. Almost the first act of the Spanish 
government was to order all the fathers and their 
flocks to remove to some other part of the Spanish 
dominions. The Jesuits protested. The government, 
jealous of possible predilections for their old masters, 
was peremptory. The J esuits prepared to obey ; but 
their catechumens were by no means so submissive. 
They refused to move, and when compulsion was 
employed resisted it by force. Their hostility was 
not very discriminating, and both Spaniards and 
Portuguese treated this resistance as rebellion. They 
also accused the priests of participation in it. The 
Jesuits claimed an investigation of their conduct. 
The Spanish authorities, though no friends of the 
order at the time, acquitted them; but Pombal could 


EXPULSION OF JESUITS. 61 

not, or would not, be convinced. Rebels be bad 
called them, and rebels they should be. 

Some of bis new Indian regiments on the Rio 
Negro got unruly. The mutiny, if it deserved so 
serious a name, was put down; but Pombal insisted 
that the Jesuits were at the bottom of it, and suc¬ 
ceeded in instilling into the king’s mind a rooted fear 
and aversion towards them. 

Joseph i. still hesitated before attacking the great 
order. His hesitation was ended by an event which, 
skilfully used by his able and unscrupulous minister, 
sealed the fate of the Society of Jesus. Some noble¬ 
men of Portugal conspired to murder the king, and 
very narrowly missed their aim. In his rage and 
terror Joseph listened to the accusations of Carvalho. 
Father Malagrida had been confessor to some of the 
guilty nobles : Father Malagrida was a Jesuit : 
therefore the Society had compassed the king’s death. 
This logic determined the wavering mind of the 
sovereign. Malagrida was found guilty by the Inqui¬ 
sition, not of conspiracy, for it could not be proved, 
but of heresy, which served as well as anything else 
when a man’s death was determined on, and he 
was executed. In September, 1759, Pombal had the 
felicity of promulgating an order in the king’s name, 
for the expulsion of every Jesuit from the Portuguese 
territories. In both Portugal and Brazil the fathers 
were brought together and shipped off to Italy, and 
there landed in a state of destitution. Within a few 
years the order was proscribed throughout Europe, 
It fell, men thought, never to rise again; it is now 
almost as politically powerful, and is perhaps more 
widely extended and vigorous than before its 
ruin. 


62 


BRAZIL. 


Having thus destroyed his enemies, Pombal fast¬ 
ened with all his energy on the task of regulating 
and fostering Brazil. For seventeen years he con¬ 
tinued to labour, to plan, and to urge; and to him, 
above any other, the great colony owes its prosperity. 
Scheme after scheme, institution after institution, 
foundations, regulations, laws, arrangements, fol¬ 
lowed each other with that marvellous fertility and 
rapidity which distinguished him. 

Companies were his first pet plan. Yieyra’s 
Brazilian Company, which had saved Brazil for 
Portugal, had been abolished by John v.: Carvalho 
atoned for the ingratitude. In 1755 he chartered a 
company to trade to Maranhao and Para, his brother’s 
provinces. In 1759 he established another for 
Parahiba and Pernambuco. A Portuguese Board of 
Trade remonstrated: he punished them, and rated 
them sharply, and they held their peace. The 
British factory at Lisbon protested; but the days 
were not yet when such a protest was to be listened 
to with deference and awe, and anger averted by 
timely submission. The minister took not the 
smallest notice. His companies prospered, and he 
forthwith founded another for the southern whale- 
fishery, and bestowed on it the monopoly of the 
Brazilian salt-trade. A privilege which would set 
all England in a flame in a week, and is a source of 
chronic disaffection in France—only kept up because 
considered to be profitable—was submitted to under 
the vigorous minister almost without a murmur. 

He relaxed the rigour of the companies’ monopo¬ 
lies a few years later, and allowed single Portuguese 
ships to trade to Bahia and Rio, instead of confining 
all merchants to the annual fleets. 


POMBAL S ADMINISTRATION. 


63 


In 1763 lie transferred the seat of government from 
Bahia to Rio. 

The internal management of the country, as well 
as its trade, felt his vigorous and unsparing hand. 
Some shadowy rights had, at least in the opinion of 
their representatives, survived to the old feudatories. 
In the troublesome times of the Spanish dominion 
they had taken form and substance : the gold-finding 
confusion had left them unextinguished. They were, 
from their very vagueness, in the hands of powerful 
or able men, engines of great oppression to the inha¬ 
bitants, and great trouble to the authorities. 

Other ministers had tried to buy up the feudal 
rights of the great landowners : Carvalho extin¬ 
guished them at once. He left the proprietors their 
land; but from that time they had no more privileges 
in respect of their estates than any Indian who grew 
his cotton crops, or cultivated his plot of manioc on 
three acres of land. 

The diamond mines next caught his keen eye as 
requiring regulation. He reformed them with 
characteristic thoroughness. All the ruinous leases 
and local government were put an end to ; he took the 
rule of the whole district into his own hands. Three 
directors in Lisbon were the government board; 
three governors in Brazil were the local authorities. 
An intendant-general was supreme over all, and had 
the whole judicial and police establishments under 
his immediate control, with full powers of inquiry 
and punishment. 

Among his many other beneficial reforms must be 
reckoned, and to his credit, his earnest attempts at 
establishing complete religious toleration. The de¬ 
struction of the independent ecclesiastical dominion 


G4 


BRAZIL. 


of the Jesuits, and the substitution of the responsible 
hierarchy of the national church, was. a step in this 
direction. But even he dared not in those days pro¬ 
claim perfect liberty of conscience. The Jews were 
to him the stumbling-block in the path of toleration. 
Neither the church nor the government was prepared 
to give up the secular authority over the converts 
from that creed who were suspected of secretly ad¬ 
hering to their old faith. Pombal did all he could, 
however, by discouraging to the utmost malicious 
denunciations of heretics, and visiting with remorse¬ 
less severity every accusation that was found to be 
false. The fruits of his measures may be seen still 1 
Brazil is a tolerant Roman Catholic country. 

In 1777 Joseph i. died, and the favourite minister 
was degraded. He retired to his country seat amid 
a storm of execration from those whom his vigorous 
hand had so long controlled, like that which attended 
Sir Robert Walpole to Houghton. The old statesman 
■was left in peace, however, and three years after he 
died in his eighty-first year, leaving to his successors 
the merit of most of his best plans. The storm of 
reproach has long died away, and, like Walpole, he 
is acknowledged to have been, though far from 
blameless, an acute and far-sighted politician, and 
on the whole an upright and vigorous governor. 
We may well acknowledge both to have been needful 
and valuable instruments in the hands of God for the 
salvation of two kingdoms, and the foundation of two 
of the largest colonial empires in the world. Had 
Walpole been more timid or more scrupulous, the 
Act of Settlement might now be a nullity, and England 
in the agonies of constitution-making, instead of 
founding and ruling a colonial empire the sun never 


UNEASINESS IN BRAZIL. 


65 


sets on. Had the Marquez de Pombal been less 
despotic and energetic, Portugal might be as Poland, 
and Brazil as Mexico. 

Reform had begun but just in time in Brazil. 
Even before the downfall of the great minister, 
began the first muttering of that frightful and 
desolating storm that swept over all the earth, trying 
the works of the nations as by fire. In 1774 the 
first blood had been shed in the struggle between 
England and her American colonies. Rumours and 
exaggerated reports of the successes of the colonists 
wandered down the Atlantic coast, becoming larger 
and more astounding as they travelled. All colonies 
grew restless; all mother countries grew uneasy. 
It was not so much that England’s ill success was 
unexpected. Her military character did not then 
stand very high. Blenheim and Malplaquet had 
faded from men’s minds : Vittoria and Waterloo had 
not been fought : and all acute observers knew that 
she was very half-hearted in her hostility to her 
troublesome offspring. It was known that Lord 
Chatham and a large part of the nation were more 
or less vehemently in favour of the colonists. But 
all kingdoms with colonies, feared the effects of the 
example. The upsetting of the tea-chests in Boston 
harbour was the death warrant of the old colonial 
system, not only in Massachusetts, but over the 
world. 

The fever of the approaching revolution did in fact 
penetrate to Brazil. As doctors tell us that a disease 
or epidemic tends to fasten on that part of the body 
that has been most pampered and'indulged, so the 
richest district of the colony was that which the 
new doctrines threatened. Minas, the great gold 


66 


BRAZIL. 


district, had prospered more than all others under 
the rule of Carvalho. Its population was rapidly 
increasing: art and science were flourishing: the 
luxuries and refinement of civilized and wealthy life 
were to be met with there more than anywhere else. 
Its literature was rising fast; and, with increasing 
knowledge and cultivation, there arose hopes and 
political aspirations, that needed only an example 
to rive them form and substance. North America 

c5 

afforded this ; and in spite of all the reforms and wise 
measures of Pombal and his subordinates, grievances 
still existed sufficiently weighty and numerous to 
give the illuminati a certain measure of popularity. 
The chief of these was the heavy arrears of the crown’s 
royalties on the mines. Were these to be called for, 
the province would be ruined. No one knew 
when they might be claimed; and a report was 
spread that the new viceroy, Barbacena, had orders 
to exact them to the uttermost farthing. A plot was 
formed to follow the lead of the English colonies, 
and, throwing off allegiance to the crown of Portugal, 
to establish a republic, and wipe off the debt. In 
the respectability of the conspirators, it bore a 
dangerous resemblance to the great northern congress. 
A cavalry officer, Silva Xavier, was ready to emulate 
Washington : the military commandant of Bio itself 
joined him: many wealthy and influential merchants 
of that town, which was the port of the disaffected 
district, were heart and hand with them. In Minas, 
priests, soldiers, traders, even judges, and above all, 
the poets and literati, formed a nucleus, round which 
not only a rebellion, but a revolution might have 
easily gathered. Their numbers increased. Their 
meetings became more and more open and threaten- 


REVOLUTION PREVENTED. 


67 


ing. They anticipated assistance from Europe, and 
waited for the first claim of unpaid royalties to give 
the signal for the outbreak. But meanwhile the 
viceroy had obtained full and accurate information 
of the whole conspiracy. His vigour and wisdom 
crushed the rebellion before it exploded. He issued 
a proclamation remitting the whole of the arrears 
he then ventured on arresting all the chief con¬ 
spirators. He passed a frightful sentence on them, 
condemning them all to be quartered, and then got it 
commuted for banishment to Africa to all except 
Xavier, who was hanged. This mixture of sternness 
and clemency had its due effect; and the good 
humour and loyalty of the awe-struck and re¬ 
pentant Minas people were confirmed by a total 
abolition of Pombal’s monopoly of salt. 

The colony was saved. It is humiliating to con¬ 
trast the wise firmness of the despised Portuguese 
government, with the feeble obstinacy that cost the 
English crown thirteen of her proudest and wealthiest 
dependencies. The tide of revolution that convulsed 
France, brought England to the verge of ruin, and 
rolled in a devastating flood over Europe, to be 
beaten back by nothing but the winter snows of the 
colossus of the north, left Brazil unharmed. The 
outer ripples of the great storm broke innocently 
against her quiet and prosperous shores. Almost 
alone of the kingdoms of the world, she owes to the 
revolution of 1789 nothing but wealth and imperial 
greatness. Napoleon is the founder of the empire 
of Brazil. 

The miseries and calamities of the great revo¬ 
lutionary war, though the colony escaped them, fell 
in all their desolating fury on the mother country. 

f 2 


68 


BRAZIL. 


Like the dwarf in the fable, she was associated with 
the giant, and had the dwarf’s share of wounds and 
suffering. She was then, what she has been ever 
since, the firm and faithful friend of England. She 
followed her powerful ally into war with France 
when the revolution broke out into its first excesses. 
But a few years after, unable to obtain help, with 
a orippled commerce and an exhausted treasury, 
overwhelmed with debt, and overawed by the 
threats of Spain, then in the interests of the directory, 
she made peace. In 1799, the regent, afterwards 
John vi.,* together with England and Eussia, again 
declared war, emboldened by the reverses of the 
French arms. Spain declared war against Portugal; 
and in 1801, Godoy ordered the invasion of the little 
kingdom. The only resource was humiliating sub¬ 
mission, and by the treaty of Badajoz, peace was 
obtained on the terms of giving up the fortress of 
Olivenza, and paying the expenses of the war. By 
abject submission, Portugal preserved a shadow of 
independence for a year or two, till the great 
emperor, then in the zenith of his power, should have 
time to destroy her. In 1807, Napoleon ordered the 
regent to declare war against England, and adopt 
the continental blockade. To close her ports was 
minous, and every hope and feeling was in favour 
of the old ally. Don John hesitated, promised, and 
delayed. Napoleon declared that the house of 
Braganza had forfeited the throne, and prepared to 
invade and annex the kingdom. In despair, Don 
John declared war against England ; but it was too 
late. The excuse had been obtained, and the great 

* He had been declared regent in 1789 on account of the mental condition of 
the queen his mother. 


ROYAL FLIGHT TO BRAZIL. 


69 


conqueror was not going to let the prey slip through 
his hands. Neither on sea or land was the victim 
safe. Sir Sidney Smith blockaded the mouth of the 
Tagus; and on all the broad ocean there was no 
escape then from Britain. And what England w T as on 
the sea, Napoleon was on the land. Juuot’s grenadiers 
were filing down the mountains of Beira; and the 
regent threw himself into the arms of the old friend. 
The Portuguese fleet was surrendered, and the 
royal house claimed the protection and aid of Eng¬ 
land to convey them to their dominions across that 
water which was the only defence from Napoleon. 
It was the only refuge, but a perfectly secure one. 
“ The influence of the French conqueror,” says Lord 
Macaulay, “ never extended below low-water mark. 
The narrowest strait was to his power what it was 
of old believed that a running stream was to the 
sorceries of a witch. While his army entered every 
metropolis from Moscow to Lisbon, the English fleets 
blockaded every port from Dantzic to Trieste. Sicily, 
Sardinia, Majorca, Guernsey, enjoyed security through 
the whole course of a war that endangered every throne 
on the continent. The victorious and imperial 
nation that had filled its museums with the spoils of 
Antwerp, of Florence, and of Borne, was suffering 
painfully from the want of luxuries which use had 
made necessaries. While pillars and arches were 
rising to commemorate the French conquests, the 
conquerors were trying to manufacture coffee out 
of succory and sugar out of beet-root.” 

Portugal took refuge on the sea, and was safe. 
On the 29th of November, 1807, archives, treasures, 
and jewels were shipped on board the English fleet. 
It was close work: the thunder of the cannon that 


70 


BRAZIL. 


saluted the embarkation of the royal family, was 
answered by the roar of Junot’s guns on the heights 
of Lisbon. As the fleet sailed out of the river, the 
French army entered the city. 

This is the only instance in history of the gpvem- 
ment of a mother country being transferred to a 
colony. New conquests have been adopted by 
kingdoms as the seat of rule, but no colony but 
Brazil has been the refuge of the king and people 
of the land that founded it. 

Xavier’s dream of independence and freedom was 
about to be fulfilled, but not as he had hoped. Brazil 
did not cast off her European king; he came to 
her. The fleet that brought the queen, the persecuted 
regent and his train, brought also peace, independ¬ 
ence, free trade, and liberty. 


( 71 ) 


CHAPTER III. 

HISTORY OF BRAZIL, FROM THE ARRIVAL OF JOHN VI. TO THE 
ABDICATION OF THE FIRST EMFEROR. 


Prosperity and discontent of Brazil—Arrival of the royal family—Character of 
the regent—Effect of the migration of the royal family—Elevation of 
Brazil into a kingdom—Death of the queen and coronation of John—Dis¬ 
content of Portugal and Brazil—Revolutions in both—John leaves Brazil— 
First and last united cortes—The Prince Dorn Pedro—Proclaimed emperor— 
Tumults—Peace—The Brazilian constitution—The Andradas—The emperor 
dissolves the assembly—Prepares the constitution himself—Dom Pedro’s 
popularity—His errors—Abdicates kingdom of Portugal—Unsuccessful wars 
—Unpopular ministries—Riots—The emperor abdicates. 

The history of Brazil from the emigration of the 
Portuguese royal family to the declaration of inde¬ 
pendence is altogether peculiar. Up to a certain 
point, the history of new-found states and colonies is 
the same. At first, whatever the form of government 
may be, all men are too busy in subduing savage 
tribes, or cultivating and reclaiming savage nature, to 
heed much about it. If the tyranny that has driven 
them to the new land be ever so galling, the recol¬ 
lection of it fades in a few years, and the settlement 
becomes as peaceful and loyal a colony as Virginia 
under the Stuarts and Tudors, or Massachusetts till 
Grenville interfered with its repudiation of customs 
duties in 1764. If the government of the colony 
itself be as cruel and foolish as Villegagnon’s, or as 
savagely oppressive as that of Verres, there is gene¬ 
rally room to move out. of its way; and the only 
effect is a multitude of expeditions, and new settle- 


72 


BRAZIL. 


ments. But in due time, when the land is portioned 
out, when its inhabitants have begun to take root 
and accumulate property which they cannot pack up 
and carry off, there comes a change. So long as the 
land is only half conquered, or half cleared, so long 
as foreign invaders are watching to seize the half¬ 
won prize, the worst government is better than none. 
But as soon as the dangers of conquest or settlement 
are over, as soon as property takes such a shape as to 
leave its owners leisure, the best government cannot 
escape attack. One of three things must happen: 
either the dependent state must be admitted to full 
participation in the political rights of the empire—or 
it must be left alone, and treated as practically an 
independent country—or it will throw off the yoke, 
and become so in name, as well as reality. The 
first can hardly be the case, except where the two 
nations are geographically closely connected, as 
England and Ireland ; or the home government is 
one of singular wisdom, justice, and power. The 
second we have adopted as to Canada and Australia. 
The third the Americans of the United States adopted 
for themselves. 

The Brazilians had reached this point; they had 
no more need of European help; and the rule they 
were glad of when French and Dutch were threaten¬ 
ing outside and Paulistas and fierce native tribes were 
disturbing them within, began to gall. The conspiracy 
of Minas was the surest sign that they were prosper¬ 
ous, and that no danger, internal or external, menaced 
them which they did not by themselves feel fully 
competent to meet. Restrictions and burdens which 
they had formerly looked upon as the natural con¬ 
sideration for protection and help, grew very heavy 


BRAZILIAN DISCONTENT. 


73 


and irritating when that protection and help were 
wanted no longer. For example: trade was under 
the most stringent, almost prohibitory, regulations. 
None but Portuguese ships were allowed to enter 
Brazilian ports. If the vessels of countries allied with 
Portugal ever sailed into a harbour, neither passen¬ 
gers nor crew were permitted to land, except under a 
guard of soldiers. The custom-house officials came 
on board as soon as the ship arrived, and remained 
in charge during her whole stay. The authorities 
prescribed the length of that stay. The effect of 
this protective system was at once humiliating and 
inconvenient. The commonest articles of daily use 
were excessively dear: some were not to be obtained 
at all. The most valuable products of the land were 
almost valueless. The proprietor of goods and 
produce, which would have fetched a large price in 
London or Amsterdam, could not afford to buy 
woollen clothes. A land-owner, who could load 
his table with gold and silver plate, could not give 
his guests steel knives to eat with. A planter or 
merchant, whose storehouses were filled with cotton 
and sugar, had only one glass tumbler for state 
occasions. Books, instruments, and stationery were 
hardly to be got; and the people began naturally to 
inquire, why they should suffer these petty and 
irritating wants for the benefit of a country and a 
government they could very well do without. 

Numerous monopolies, too, proverbially the most 
exasperating of all exactions, still existed. 

The native Brazilians, moreover, were, to a great 
degree, excluded from the superior offices of state; 
and where there is no urgent need for foreign 
dominion, it is naturally offensive to a people to 


74 


BRAZIL. 


receive from authorities they never saw, governors 
and officials they never knew or heard of. 

The whole colony was in a state of passive discon¬ 
tent; and sooner or later resistance to, and then 
open defiance of, the mother country would have 
followed; and all experience shows what the result 
of a struggle between such a colony and such a 
mother country would have been. But neither re¬ 
sistance nor struggle ever began. All questions as 
to revolt from a foreign dominion were put an end to 
by the dominion ceasing to be foreign. 

♦ The news of the embarkation of the royal family, 
and the regent’s intention to make Brazil the seat of 
his government, reached Bio de Janeiro in January 
1808. No colony had ever been so honoured; and 
the Brazilians prepared to efface all remembrance of 
his European troubles from their prince’s mind, with 
the fervour of their welcome. All discontent was 
drowned in the general joyful excitement; indeed, 
its chief cause diminished with every mile that 
lessened the distance of the sovereign from his vast 
colony. Preparations were made with pomp and 
splendour never before seen in America. The vice¬ 
roy’s house became in appearance, as well as name, 
a palace. All the houses in Palace-square, and many 
of the residences of the wealthier citizens, were de¬ 
manded, and joyfully given up, for the accommodation 
of the prince’s suite. Voluntary offerings of money, 
jewels, valuables of all sorts, provisions and furniture, 
poured in from all sides. 

A storm had scattered the fleet; and the first part 
of his Brazilian empire the regent landed at was 
Bahia, the old seat of government. While waiting 
there, he gave an earnest of his good will and libe- 


THE ROYAL FAMILY AT RIO. 


75 


rality, by promulgating a “ carta regia,” dated the 
28th of January, opening the ports of Brazil, retain¬ 
ing nothing on imports but a moderate duty, and 
permitting exports under any flag of all articles, 
except one or two which were still royal monopolies. 

The royal family did not remain long at Bahia. 
In the month of March, the queen and her son the 
regent, and their whole train, started for Bio in state. 
On the 7th they entered the harbour. When they 
landed, the hills were covered with thousands of 
spectators, wild with delight. The bay was barely 
navigable from the crowds of boats : the quays, and 
streets, and housetops were thronged with rejoicing 
citizens and country people shouting and blessing 
their prince’s name, as he proceeded to the cathedral, 
to thank God publicly for.his preservation. The 
city was illuminated for nine successive days and 
nights. 

The character of the regent was such as to warrant 
the fervent hope and loyalty his American subjects 
displayed. Early left, by the mental disease of his 
mother, queen Maria Erancisca Isabel, to the almost 
uncontrolled exercise of despotic authority, he had 
shown few of the vices it is so prone to engender. 
His temper was mild and just, and his moral cha¬ 
racter comparatively pure. Compared to the ener¬ 
getic and restless activity of his grandfather’s great 
minister, Carvalho, his administration appears feeble; 
but his lot was cast in troublesome times. He 
lacked, too, that rare power of the perfect statesman, 
which can give to all events, and all concerns of 
government, their due weight, whether they are near 
at hand or far off; whether they are to outward 
appearance great or small. The nearest trouble 


76 


BRAZIL. 


was the greatest to John vi: the suitor that spoke 
in the royal closet had more chance of success than 
those who wrote or sent messengers from distant 
provinces. It was disagreeable to the gentle prince 
to refuse; it was laborious to inquire and discuss. 
It was not hard for importunity to overcome his 
better judgment; and sudden crises, and startling 
and unforeseen*danger unnerved him. It would have 
been very difficult, if not impossible, for him to have 
averted Napoleon’s attack ; but his vacillation un¬ 
doubtedly precipitated it, and risked the support 
which alone could, or did avail him against it. He 
seems to have been sincerely attached to free institu¬ 
tions, and towards the close of his life, after he had 
returned to Portugal, risked his crown, and even his 
life, in supporting them against his rebellious son, 
Dom Miguel. 

The nearest and most important object in his eyes 
was now the prosperity of his adopted kingdom; 
and, as far as he could or dared, he attempted to 
carry it out on his own plan. Free trade was 
established completely; foreign settlers, especially 
artizans and labourers, were invited and encouraged 
every way; English mechanics and shipwrights, 
Swedish iron-founders, German engineers, and French 
artists and manufacturers crowded to the new field 
of enterprise. Schools and hospitals were founded 
in every direction; and the new commerce was 
anxiously watched, and regulated. Inspectors of 
ports and customs were appointed to prevent frauds. 
To the horror of the priests, bottomry bonds and 
interest on mercantile contracts were introduced, and 
allowed. Rio was made a bishopric, and the eccle¬ 
siastical arrangements of the country were carefully 


WISE REGULATIONS AND PROSPERITY. 


77 


regulated. Many new tribunals, from the number of 
which the Inquisition was excluded, were established; 
and all religions were tolerated. Minuter social 
matters did not escape the regent’s attention: he intro¬ 
duced and encouraged in every way the unspeakable 
blessing, to a western land especially, of vaccination; 
he imported the first printing-press the colony had 
ever possessed, and began the publication of a news¬ 
paper ; he founded academies of medicine and the 
fine arts. The royal library, of more than 60,000 vol¬ 
umes, was thrown open for the free use of the public. 

The vast increase of population and trade caused a 
corresponding advance in the buildings, especially of 
the capital. New streets and squares, and magnifi¬ 
cent country houses sprang up on all sides. 

The presence of a brilliant court altered many of 
the habits of the people. European fashions were 
introduced: sober colonists appeared in habiliments 
not more than a year before abandoned in Lisbon, 
Madrid, and Paris: the levees and festivals gave a 
tone to society that a colony cannot acquire. For 
the first time, titles, decorations, and honours exalted 
the simple Brazilians in their own and each other’s 
eyes. Instead of the faint echoes of gossip from 
Europe, they had enjoyed, with all the zest of novelty, 
scandal of their own; and there was soon found 
at Rio a large class who read and discussed the 
court circular, and little else. 

A new life and activity, new wants, new luxuries, 
new habits, an increased and increasing trade, a 
multiplying and vigorous population, fresh under¬ 
takings both public and private, and all the bustle 
and vigour of a rising community were the immediate 
effects of the European exodus to Brazil. 


78 


BRAZIL. 


But all was not sunshine. After all festivities 
comes the bill; and in this instance it was a very 
heavy one. As long as the country was a colony, its 
government had been simple and inexpensive. The 
colonists found that a queen, and a regent, and their 
court were costly luxuries. They might not have 
grumbled at these alone, but the troubles of Portugal 
had ruined many besides the royal family. More 
than twenty thousand nobles, knights, and gentry 
had accompanied or followed their sovereign; and 
each expected to be supported in his own station by 
the revenues of the colony. Under its new circum¬ 
stances, the country undoubtedly needed a new and 
extended administrative machinery; but, in order to 
provide for this shoal of dependents, offices and places 
were created and endowed with salaries with most 
unwarrantable profusion. The regent had brought 
with him all his own European ministry. When he 
came, there were four ministers, four offices, and four 
staffs of officials already existing—one for the home 
department, one for finance, one for war and foreign 
affairs, and one for the marine and colonies. All 
these were continued, and in one year the amazed 
and disgusted Brazilians found themselves saddled 
with a supreme court of law and equity; a board for 
the simultaneous management of the incongruous 
affairs and property of the church and the military 
orders, with the power of suspending laws; a secondary 
court of appeal—superior, nevertheless, to all their 
own; a general board of police; a court of exchequer 
to the treasury; a mint with a large staff of officials; 
a bank; a royal printing-office; immense mills and 
factories for powder and ammunition; and a supreme 
military court. All these were, as they perhaps 


FINANCIAL EMBARRASSMENTS. 


79 


* pardonably insisted, barely necessary, over-officered, 
and, worst of all, filled entirely with European officials. 
The expense of the court added to them made up a 
burden, under which, in spite of the new stimulus to 
trade and population, the Brazilians writhed grie¬ 
vously. 

New taxes and duties were the immediate result. 
Tobacco, sugar, hides, cotton, and other exports 
were taxed as they had never been taxed before. 
Ten per cent, was levied on house-rent, on the sale 
of real property, and harbour dues. The government 
dared not, in the teeth of their liberal promises, go 
any further. The expenses, however, steadily in¬ 
creased. The ruinous expedient was adopted of 
tampering with the currency. Debased gold coin 
was issued: dollars were sent into circulation at 
twenty per cent, above their commercial value. The 
confusion and embarrassment was so great, that to 
this day Brazil suffers from it. 

The bank was in close connexion with the mint ; 
and, to meet their increasing expenditure, the govern¬ 
ment more and more frequently borrowed money 
from it, mortgaging, as a security, taxes not yet due, 
unpaid royalties, and even the regalia. It also com¬ 
pelled the bank to issue vast quantities of notes far 
beyond the capital in its coffers. By these operations 
the bank’s affairs got into such irremediable confusion, 
that a few years afterwards it stopped payment, 
bringing the empire to the verge of ruin. 

To divert the growing discontent of the people, 
the government adopted a very common expedient— 
a popular war. The regent determined to retaliate 
on a French colony the injuries Portugal had suffered 
from France. In 1809, he attacked French Guiana. 


80 


BRAZIL. 


There was not much fighting: France could not stir 
from her harbours, much less help a distant colony; 
and what her power was to Portugal, that of Brazil 
was to Guiana. The province capitulated, and for 
six years, till it was restored to France by the treaty 
of Vienna, it remained subject to Brazilian rule. 
Although of little immediate value, the indirect 
benefits of this temporary conquest were great. Up 
to the time of the migration, the policy of Portugal 
towards her colonies had been crippling and oppres¬ 
sive to the last degree in matters of agriculture. 
Brazil was protected in sugar-growing, by its culti¬ 
vation being totally prohibited in Africa; India was 
protected in spice-growing by all spices being for¬ 
bidden in Brazil, either to be cultivated or to grow 
of themselves : cinnamon, for instance, was destroyed 
wherever it was found. The consequence of these 
absurd regulations was that many products for which 
Brazil was eminently fitted, were extirpated. Guiana, 
however, possessed them in abundance, and from the 
new conquest, and from Africa, they were imported 
largely, and, with the help of the Boyal Botanical 
Garden, began to spread over the face of the country. 

The easy victory over the French settlement en¬ 
couraged the regent to attempt a similar retaliation 
on Spain. But the Spanish colonies on the south 
and west of Brazil were far more powerful than 
Guiana. Before employing force, the Brazilian 
government tried persuasion. Buenos Ayres and 
Monte Video were invited to take advantage of the 
offered protection of the Portuguese crown. Willing 
enough to shake off allegiance to Spain, they were 
not much impressed with the advantages of substi¬ 
tuting Portugal in her place. After a variety of 


WAR WITH SPANISH COLONIES. 


81 


loyal falsehoods, declaring their everlasting adherence 
to the Spanish crown, they declared themselves an 
independent republic. If they hoped that the regent’s 
hostility to Spain would make him prefer that since 
they would not be his they should be their own, or 
any one’s rather than Spain’s, they were much dis¬ 
appointed. John hated and dreaded Spain, but he 
hated and dreaded republicanism more. It was a 
republic, and an emperor the fruit of a republic, that 
had humiliated and banished him, not Spain. So 
when Elio, the Spanish governor, attacked the insur¬ 
gents, John aided him with money and men. Elio 
was defeated, and the young republic made inroads 
on Rio Grande and Sao Paolo. John was thoroughly 
alarmed, and sent 5000 Portuguese troops, with a 
large Brazilian contingent, to protect his southern 
frontier. A pitched battle was fought, and the in¬ 
surgents were entirely routed. Monte Video was 
evacuated; Missiones was occupied; and Artigas, 
the republican leader, was chased across the Uruguay. 
There he was watched by the Brazilian forces, and 
revenged himself by giving letters of marque, or 
rather piracy, to privateers, to attack the Brazilian 
vessels. The peculiarity of this scheme was that 
when a vessel was captured, Artigas had not a single 
seaport in his power where she could be condemned. 

In spite, however, of prosperous and popular war, 
the murmurs of the colonists did not cease ; and they 
acquired weight in the regent’s eyes from recent 
events. Brazilians had fought side by side with 
Portuguese, and with no loss of credit: they might, 
with no less success, fight against them. Brazilian 
money supported the court and the government: it 
might be withheld, and they would be ruined. The 


G 





82 


BRAZIL. 


colony was objecting to the burden of maintaining the 
kingdom; John determined to meet the objection by 
making Brazil the kingdom itself. 

In December, 1815, he promulgated a decree, de¬ 
claring his mother queen, and himself regent, of the 
united kingdom of Portugal, Algarves, and Brazil. 
Thenceforth the Brazilian soldiers were Portuguese 
also; the Brazilian taxes were part of the Portuguese 
revenue; Brazil itself was not only a part, but, by 
virtue of its possessing in itself the seat of govern¬ 
ment, the head of the Portuguese empire. 

A fresh paroxysm of enthusiasm was the immediate 
and welcome consequence. It was a dangerous pro¬ 
cess—for a government that maintains its ground only 
by the help of periodic fits of popularity is living on 
its capital—but for the time it was perfectly suc¬ 
cessful. The delight with which the royal family 
had been welcomed eight years before was altogether 
surpassed by the joy caused by this sop to national 
vanity. It was regarded as a sort of political millen¬ 
nium. From the Amazon to La Plata,—from the sea 
to the smallest settlement that watched day and night 
against the wild tribes of the interior, or turned out 
every three days to drive the wild hogs out of the 
cane-patches, the vast colony blazed with illumi¬ 
nations. The messengers that carried the official 
announcements were greeted with bonfires, and 
feasted like ambassadors ; and before the excitement 
died out, it blazed up again at a fresh announcement, 
that of the death of the queen-mother, and the acces¬ 
sion of the first Brazilian king. The ceremonies 
were delayed for a year, out of respect to his mother’s 
memory; but on the 5th February, 1818, king 
John vi. of Portugal, Algarves, and Brazil, was 


ACCESSION OF JOHN VI. 


83 


crowned in the Palace-square at Rio with magnifi¬ 
cence theretofore unheard of in the country. The 
event was hailed as the accession of George hi. was 
hailed in England. The personal affection and pride 
towards a home-bom sovereign that caused the quarrel 
between the men of Israel and the men of Judah over 
the son of Jesse, called forth, almost for the first time 
among the fervent South Americans, that feeling 
without which it seems doubtful if any country can 
be permanently peaceful and prosperous—fond and 
jealous pride and interest in its government. 

Pride and interest in their government naturally 
produced among^ the Brazilians a desire to have a share 
in it: at present they had not; every place of any im¬ 
portance whatever was filled by a Portuguese follower 
of the court: the Brazilians had not one representa¬ 
tive among all their rulers. They might petition, 
declare their wishes, pass resolutions, and threaten 
till they were tired; but unless, by some means, 
they could get personal access to the king, whose 
gentleness and urbanity always kept his popularity 
alive, their commotions had not the smallest effect on 
the government. 

They were writhing with the sense of profound 
injustice. When a man pays money for the good of 
himself and his countrymen, he has a natural con¬ 
viction that he, or some one answerable to and 
appointed by him, ought to decide how that money 
is spent; and in every country where there exists 
any intelligent patriotism, national honour, national 
acts, national behaviour are matters of such interest 
to him, that nothing short of degradation, or sheer 
military force, can prevent him from speaking his 
mind, and insisting that he shall be attended to. In 

g 2 




84 


BBAZIL. 


Brazil, there was not even the pretence of any 
machinery by which the natives could exercise any 
influence whatever over their own destinies, or 
their own money. There was not a newspaper in 
which to write. The court gazette inserted no in¬ 
discreet contributions ; and, consequently, every 
abuse, since it was in no way their own, was magni¬ 
fied tenfold in their eyes< Every cruzado mis-spent 
was a bitter wrong—more bitter, because they had not 
even the wasting of it themselves. Every adminis¬ 
tration or judicial failing was irritating tyranny, 
since neither minister nor judge was in any sense 
their own. The best government would have been 
unpopular; and the abuses that really existed under 
the mild, but feeble rule of king John vi. were quite 
sufficient to cause reasonable discontent. 

Portugal was almost as discontented as Brazil, 
and there the first ebullition threatened to break 
out. She had an additional cause of irritation in 
her anomalous position, as a sort of colony of her 
colony. The king had ceased to be in the minds of 
the Portuguese king of Portugal, and had not won 
in the minds of the Brazilians, in spite of all their 
enthusiasm, the real position of king of Brazil. He 
had lost what he had, and gained little or nothing 
instead. The vulgar old proverb, touching attempts 
to sit on two stools, was assuming an ominous signifi¬ 
cance. 

In 1817 a republican conspiracy was discovered, 
and only just in time to crush it, in Lisbon. In the 
same year, a similar narrow escape took place in 
Pernambuco. Education had made considerable 
progress there, and the inhabitants remembered 
with deep pride, that almost alone they had sus- 


DISTURBANCES IN PORTUGAL AND BRAZIL. 85 

tained, and finally victoriously concluded the war 
against the Dutch. Recife, their chief city, was 
bitterly jealous of Rio; and its inhabitants grudged 
sorely the expense of the court, and the luxury by 
which they profited little or not at all. The plot 
spread fast and far, even to Bahia, almost equally 
indignant at the prosperity of Rio. It had actually 
broken out in Pernambuco, though the republic 
lasted no more than ninety days. It was only by 
singular energy and decision that the governor of 
Bahia contrived to keep his own district quiet, while 
he stamped out the flame in the other province. 
Severities and executions obviously had little effect, 
and the people were in such a moody and savage 
humour, that the king grew profoundly alarmed, and 
at the earliest opportunity imported powerful bodies 
of picked troops from Portugal. These, thanks to the 
Duke of Wellington, were in a high state of effi¬ 
ciency, and for the time overawed the discontented 
Brazilians. 

But John was unable to keep both kingdoms quiet 
at once. The moment he brought his troops to one, 
the other broke out. In 1820, a regular revolution 
exploded in Portugal, past all his power to check, 
almost to guide. Representative government was 
proclaimed: the scheme to be settled by a congress 
of popular deputies. In the meantime, the Spanish 
constitution of 1812 was adopted. 

Brazil was deeply moved by this successful attempt. 
Large meetings assembled in every province ; every 
town-council sympathized, passed resolutions, and 
petitioned. In Rio itself, tumultuous bodies of the 
populace assembled, shouting for a constitution. 
Like Louis xvi., the king endeavoured in a mild 


86 


BEAZIL. 


way to use the Portuguese troops against the people, 
and they failed him. Less than a year after the 
Portuguese revolution, citizens, merchants, soldiers 
and rabble surrounded the palace, clamouring for 
liberty. The king yielded, and swore to a similar 
constitution to that of Portugal. The credit of the 
timely concession is due to the young prince Pedro, 
the father of the present emperor: his personal 
beauty, his frank and affable manners, and the liberal 
sentiments he was known to entertain, made him 
exceedingly popular. The people hardly trusted the 
king. It was only bit by bit that he acceded to their 
wishes: first he refused; then he swore to the new 
constitution ; then he tried to modify it by institut¬ 
ing a chamber of peers. The people, and above all 
the troops, grew irritated ; they were collected only 
three miles away from the palace of S. Christovao, 
where the king was. The juncture was critical; one 
false step, and there might have been a repetition of 
the sanguinary and humiliating scenes of Paris. The 
prince rode out to. the angry multitude, and, on his 
own authority, accepted and guaranteed all their 
demands. The king had the good sense to assent, 
and adopt his act. The popular elections began amid 
a tumult of joyful excitement. 

The poor king was w6ll nigh distracted between 
the two portions of his wilful people. His western 
paradise was as troublesome as his native country; 
and he yearned in his old age to return to the home 
of his fathers. He seems to have had some thoughts 
of sending home his son ; but whether he did not 
trust him, or whether he himself were weary of 
Brazil, he determined on returning himself, and 
leaving Horn Pedro as regent. On the 24th of April, 


DISSENSIONS BETWEEN PORTUGAL AND BRAZIL. 87 


1821, he embarked. As he took leave of his son, he 
said, “ Pedro, I fear Brazil will ere long separate from 
Portugal; and if so, place the crown on thine own 
head, rather than allow it to fall into the hands of 
any adventurer.” 

It did not need deep prescience? to see the coming 
event. The revolution of Portugal had arisen from 
hatred to Brazil: the revolution of Brazil had 
broken out from hatred to Portugal. The mother 
country was indignant at the practical supremacy of 
its great colony: the colony utterly detested the 
rule of the mother country. It was vain to hope 
that Brazilian deputies would long sit in the cortes 
at Lisbon. 

Their first performance on arriving in Europe and 
taking their seats, was to attack the Portuguese 
deputies for having dared to commence framing the 
constitution without them. The cortes had passed 
some laws for Brazil,—the colonial deputies re¬ 
pudiated them. The colony was to be treated as a 
colony, said the Portuguese: it was as much a part 
of the kingdom as Algarve, replied the Brazilians. 
They were in a minority, and the cortes proceeded to 
hamper and lecture the prince regent, till he begged 
his father to let him resign. They then ordered him 
to return, in order to complete his education, and 
passed a decree annulling all the colonial tribunals. 
This was too much. The provincial government of 
Sao Paulo, under the direction of two of its ablest 
citizens, the brothers Andrada, begged the prince to 
disobey and remain. The soldiers threatened to 
mutiny, if he departed. The people thronged round 
him everywhere he went, entreating him not to leave 
them. Every fresh proof of their affection made his t 


88 


BRAZIL. 


situation more dangerous, and exasperated the home 
government. The whole country was in a fever. If 
the prince went, there were only two alternatives—a 
republic and anarchy, which all the respectable 
colonists dreaded, or a return to the old miserable 
and crushing dependence on Portugal. The town- 
council obtained an audience with Dom Pedro, and 
laid the whole matter before him. He promised 
them he would not go. They then begged him to 
assume the crown, and declare the country inde¬ 
pendent. This he refused, and reiterated his loyalty 
and devotion to the crown. The truth was, he was 
watching the Portuguese soldiery : they hated the 
government, and the Brazilians hated them. Several 
outbreaks took place, which nothing but his energy, 
vigour, and personal popularity with both parties 
prevented from becoming sanguinary intestine war. 
The prince and his ministers, the Andradas, were 
indefatigable; but everything betokened that a de¬ 
cision must soon be taken one way or the other. 
Either the Portuguese authority must be upheld, and 
the yoke fixed on the necks of the people, or the 
country must have its way, and be declared inde¬ 
pendent. At last the crisis came. The prince was 
careering backwards and forwards through Minas 
and S. Paulo, beseeching, pacifying, threatening, 
fighting. In his absence, the town-council of 
the capilal declared him Defender of the Empire. 
On the 7th September, 1822, he received a bundle of 
despatches from Portugal. His anxious staff watched 
every motion. He read letter after letter; one 
particularly two or three times, and then destroyed 
it. No one ever saw it, nor did he ever tell what it 
contained; but after a few minutes, thought, he 


DOM PEDRO EMPEROR OF BRAZIL. 


89 


raised his hand, and exclaimed “ Independencia ou 
morte.” 

His work was over. Soldiers and civilians, 
Brazilians and Portuguese, joined in the cry. The 
lineal descendant of that Capet, whose other offspring 
had come to a bloody and mournful end in the Place 
de Greve, in Paris, became, by the acclamation of a 
whole people, the emperor of the great monarchy of 
the western world. 

He had carried out the wishes, probably the written 
directions, of his father; and some notion of the old 
king’s feelings seems to have been widely spread, for 
all through the struggle neither the Portuguese 
soldiery nor the Brazilians ever spoke of him but 
with affection and pity as a prisoner of the cortes at 
Lisbon. 

In hatred to the cortes, and personal attachment 
to the king and his son, both these parties were 
united, and in nothing else. To the Brazilians, the 
Duke of Wellington’s old soldiers were a sign of past 
European domination, and of possible future subjec¬ 
tion : to the Portuguese, the Brazilians were what 
an American trader calls the Nova Scotians—“ a set 
of despisable colonists.” Though fellow-subjects, 
they could no more unite than the iron and the clay. 

The declaration of the empire drove the Portuguese 
party to a dismal sort of loyalty. Dom Pedro had 
adopted the Brazilians, and adopting the Brazilians 
was casting off the Portuguese ; so, to the number 
of 12,000, the troops under general Madeira gathered 
at Bahia, and there all the European party congre¬ 
gated to await reinforcements from Lisbon, which 
soon arrived in large numbers. But there was no 
heart in them, and the emperor did not drive them 


90 


BRAZIL. 


to despair: he simply watched them, and starved 
them. They made sallies, but the Bfazilian troops 
beat them back. No provisions were to be got by 
land, and at sea Lord Cochrane, in command of a 
squadron, picked up every ship that attempted to 
relieve them. Jn 1823 they gave in. On the 2nd 
of July their fleet sailed for Europe, and was imme¬ 
diately attacked by Lord Cochrane, who took some 
ships. Taylor, another English sailor in Brazilian 
pay, followed the persecuted squadron to the very 
coast of Portugal, and captured some more within 
sight of land. 

Both Maranhao and Para were then delivered, 
under the conduct of Cochrane and Grenfell, from 
the last link of the Portuguese bondage, and declared 
for the empire. 

In Monte Video the general of the Portuguese 
troops declared for independence, and left the soldiers 
to themselves : they followed their brethren to 
Europe. Banda Oriental being left to its own 
choice by the sudden departure of the force that had 
been keeping it quiet, remained attached to Brazil. 
The last battalions of the Portuguese troops were 
ultimately withdrawn, and in three years from his 
declaration (August 29, 1825) Pedro i. was acknow¬ 
ledged by the mother country emperor of Brazil. 

Meanwhile the first Brazilian assembly had been 
convoked, and was actively engaged in framing its 
first constitution. 

As many another people have found, this manufac¬ 
ture was attended with great difficulties. It was 
well for the Brazilians that they had passed through 
an apprenticeship of self-government and independ¬ 
ence, however short and imperfect. 


CONSTITUTION PROPOSED. 


91 


Brazil had been an independent monarchy for 
some years; and, as has been seen, its rulers were 
practically relying on the goodwill of the people, 
and the people knew it. They had seen and felt 
the difficulties of attaining and keeping to the golden 
mean, and they were content, or willing to be con¬ 
tent, with possible, not theoretical measures. In¬ 
stead of quoting Livy’s speeches, electing consuls, 
insisting on liberty for those who were not lit to be 
free, equality for those whom God had made unequal, 
and fraternity between those who had all and those 
who had nothing, not even character or morals, to 
lose, they wanted, first, order and security; next, 
reasonable checks upon authority ; and lastly, elastic 
machinery for future improvements, future wants, 
and future circumstances. 

They would have failed but for the emperor. At 
the very beginning of the session, he laid before the 
assembly a sketch of the constitution they had to 
frame, which it would be difficult to praise too highly. 
“ The recent constitution,” he said, “ founded on the 
models of those of 1791 and 1792, had been acknow¬ 
ledged as too abstract and metaphysical for execution. 
This has been proved by the example of France, and 
more recently by that of Spain and Portugal. AVe 
have need of a constitution where the powers may be 
so divided and defined that no one branch can arro¬ 
gate to itself the prerogative of another; a constitu¬ 
tion which may be an insurmountable barrier against 
all invasion of the royal authority, whether aristo¬ 
cratic or popular; which will overthrow anarchy 
and cherish the tree of liberty, beneath whose shade 
we shall see the union and the independence of the 
empire flourish—in a word, a constitution that will 


92 


BRAZIL. 


excite the admiration of other nations, and even of 
onr enemies, who will consecrate the triumph of onr 
principles by adopting them/’ 

This was a flight above the assembly. The 
brothers Andrada were at the head of the ministry; 
they were arbitrary, impatient, and overbearing, and 
presumed on their past services in setting up the 
empire to tyrannize over both emperor and assembly. 
They were forced by the latter to resign. The 
people rose, and drew the elder, Jose Bonifacio, in 
triumph through Bio to his official residence. Over¬ 
awed, the assembly reinstated them. Eight months 
after, they were ejected again, and thenceforth be¬ 
came the violent and factious opponents of both 
court and assembly. Since they could not rule, they 
determined no one else should. They were powerful 
in the house, and their newspaper, the Tamayo , was 
libellous and unsparing in its attacks. The formation 
of a constitution did not advance at all. The em¬ 
peror made suggestions, the Andradas threw them 
out. Members brought in bills; they were never 
read. The brothers went so far as to attack the 
Portuguese employes of the emperor, and when one 
victim wrote a sharp article against them, used per¬ 
sonal violence towards him. He appealed to the 
house : the Andradas insisted that he, and all like 
him, should be dismissed, and in their newspapers 
threatened the emperor plainly with the fate of 
Charles i. 

Horn Pedro became seriously uneasy. The Andra¬ 
das were powerful and wealthy men, and their dis¬ 
affection might be only a symptom of widely ex¬ 
tended and deep-seated feeling; and the sentiments 
that had favoured the declaration of independence, 


THE EMPEROR’S DIFFICULTIES AND DECISION. 93 

had not, he well knew, stopped at the establishment 
of an empire. The pendulum of public opinion had 
swung from the extreme of despotism equally far on 
the side of liberty. Almost immediately after his 
decision, republican movements had taken place in 
various parts of the empire ; to suppress them he 
had been compelled to employ those who dreaded 
a republic most—the Portuguese residents and the 
militia, chiefly recruited from the commercial class, 
whose interests gave them a strong Portuguese bias. 
He had thus been, in spite of his own liberal and 
patriotic tendencies, forced into a closer and closer 
connexion with, and reliance upon, a class that was 
only less obnoxious to the liberal Brazilians than 
the Portugese military and officials they.had expelled. 
He dared not trust the republican natives; and yet 
his popularity with them depended on his abandoning 
those whom alone he could thoroughly confide in— 
the Portuguese party. 

The insults and factiousness of the popular party 
drove him to extremes. Exasperated beyond his 
patience he took the law into his own hands.- The 
brothers Andrada had induced the assembly to de¬ 
clare itself permanent; the emperor mounted his 
horse, surrounded the chamber with cannon and 
troops, sent the unfortunate deputies about their 
business, and transported the three Andradas and 
two of their friends to France, without even the 
compliment of a trial. 

The friends of liberty were alarmed at this arbi¬ 
trary proceeding ; but there was no other course left, 
and the emperor endeavoured to show that he acted 
from no designs against freedom, but from necessity, 
by issuing a proclamation stating what he had done, 


94 


BRAZIL. 


and saying, “ that though he had, from regal’d to the 
tranquillity of the empire, thought tit to dissolve the 
third assembly, he had in the same decree convoked 
another, in conformity with the acknowledged con¬ 
stitutional rights of his people.” He determined no 
longer to leave the framing of the draft of the 
constitution to the house, but drew up a sketch 
himself, and appointed a commission of ten persons 
to settle it, before submitting it to discussion. 

The republicans and ultra-liberals were at first 
awed by, and then furious at the emperor’s energetic 
but arbitrary measures: it seemed to them that they 
were going the way of other states. In Portugal, in 
Spain, in Naples, in Piedmont, the experiment they 
were trying had failed. After enduring for a time, 
since they could not resist, the vagaries and insolence 
of the popular parties, the sovereigns of those 
countries had watched their opportunity, and when 
the representative assemblies had wearied and dis¬ 
gusted the people by their follies, had taken advan¬ 
tage of the returning tide to crush them. They 
concluded that Horn Pedro was doing the like, and 
that his aim also was absolute dominion ; and, as a 
last chance, all over the country they broke out into 
rebellion. In Pernambuco, in’Ceara, in the northern 
provinces, and in the south, the republic was succes¬ 
sively proclaimed. Banda Oriental revolted, and this 
time finally: it has never been subject to Brazil since. 

The whole people were wavering. They dreaded 
the turbulence and anarchy of the republicans; and 
the emperor’s coup d’etat had made them distrust 
him. They wronged him, however, at that time. 
He saw the urgency of the crisis; and, with a happy 
temerity, saved himself and Brazil. He prevailed 


DOM PEDRO’S POLITICAL CONSTITUTION. 95 

on the town-council of Rio to petition him to 
adopt the constitution he had drawn, as settled 
by the council of ten, without submitting it to a 
popular assembly, and immediately acted on their 
request. On the 24th March, 1824, he publicly 
swore to it, trusting, and with reason, to its own 
inherent merits to gain his subjects’ consent. He 
was perfectly successful: wherever the new docu¬ 
ment was proclaimed it destroyed the strength of 
rebellion. It was so simple, so liberal, and so 
evidently practical, that the republicans could not 
with any face ask any more ; and all the wavering 
royalists were reconciled and reassured at once by 
this proof of their prince’s good faith: all the pro¬ 
vincial authorities, and gradually the whole people, 
accepted and swore to observe it. 

We may here give Drs. Kidder and Fletcher’s 
summary of it. “ The government of the empire is 
monarchical, hereditary, constitutional, and represen¬ 
tative. The religion of the state is Roman Catholic, 
but all other denominations are tolerated. Judicial 
proceedings are public, and there is the right of 
habeas corpus, and trial by jury. The legislative 
power is in the general assembly, which answers to 
the imperial parliament of England, or to the 
congress of the United States. The senators are 
elected for life, and the representatives for four years. 
The presidents of the provinces are appointed by the 
emperor. There is a legislative assembly to each 
province for local laws, taxation, and government ; 
thus Brazil is a decentralized empire. The senators 
and representatives of the general assembly are 
chosen through the intervention of electors, as is the 
president of the United States, and the provincial 


96 


BRAZIL. 


legislators are elected by universal suffrage. The 
press is free, and there is no proscription on account 
of colour.”* 

Up to this time the emperor had acted with 
consummate wisdom and vigour. Most moderate 
men were, ready and willing to admit the expediency 
of his most arbitrary acts, and to reward with 
gratitude and loyalty a prince who had saved them 
by any means from the miseries of anarchy, and yet 
was steady in his own allegiance to the principles of 
rational freedom. But the dangers he had escaped, 
and the extreme measures he had been compelled tq 
use, seem to have had an unfavourable effect on his 
own mind. He never again trusted his people: 
he never shook off the connexion he had formed 
with the Portuguese party. The recollection of the 
successful coup d’etat appears to have given him a taste 
for absolute power which he had never before shown, 
and never again abandoned; and his whole adminis¬ 
tration thenceforward is a melancholy catalogue of 
failures and mistakes that disgraced himself and 
alienated his people. He had saved his country, but 
in doing so had spoiled himself. 

The constitution raised him to the height of popu¬ 
larity, and enabled him so effectually to tread out the 
last sparks of rebellion, lhat in the year 1825 the 
whole country was in a state of profound tranquillity. 
The people looked anxiously for the convocation of 
the chambers. While revolution was unquenched, 
they easily pardoned the postponement of the sum¬ 
mons ; but the first symptom of the emperor’s altered 
feelings appeared in his continued omission to con- 

* For a fuller abstract of the Constitution, 6ee Appendix B to Drs. Kidder 
and Fletchers book. 


IMPOLITIC CONDUCT OF THE EMPEROR. 


97 


voke the assembly. The flame of discontent was 
lighted again, and his manifest preference for the 
Portuguese began to attract notice. A foolish treaty 
he entered into with Portugal added real weight to 
this grievance. By this treaty the king of Portugal 
assumed the title of emperor of Brazil, and abdicated 
immediately in favour of the real emperor, his son. 
This absurd recognition of the independence of 
Brazil was the only consideration for several extra¬ 
vagant concessions to the mother country. Brazil 
undertook to pay to England an enormous debt 
contracted by Portugal (1,500,000/.), and to the king 
an indemnity of 200,000/. for his Brazilian property. 
To several private Portuguese she engaged to pay 
the expenses of the very troops she had beaten and 
expelled; and, further, Portuguese merchandise was 
to pay less duty thereafter than any other. 

Anything more justly irritating than this treaty 
cannot easily be conceived. The emperor was 
emperor by successful revolt and conquest. To 
admit the title of the king of Portugal, and buy it of 
him, was to pay for what they had just won at the 
point of the sword, and to admit what they had fought 
to destroy—the rightful supremacy of Portugal. The 
impotent fury of a Piedmontese town which had to 
pay Bonaparte’s soldiers for battering their walls, 
burning their churches, and committing the great¬ 
est atrocities, was not more reasonable than the anger 
of the Brazilians who had to half ruin themselves 
to pay the Portuguese, not for conquering but for 
being conquered. It was as if Elizabeth, after the 
destruction of the Armada, had beggared England 
to pay Philip to give up his claims, by assuming the 
British crown and then selling it to her; and 


98 


BRAZIL. 


had undertaken to indemnify him against the loss 
inflicted by Drake, Howard, and Effingham, by 
imposing heavy taxes in his favour, and giving 
Spanish vessels special commercial privileges in 
every English port. 

Foolish diplomacy was followed by still more 
foolish and unsuccessful war. The emperor attacked 
the revolted province of Banda Oriental, and de¬ 
clared war against Buenos Ayres for assisting it. So 
feebly, expensively, and disgracefully were the 
operations carried on, that the people regarded it as 
a mere excuse for the enlistment of several regiments 
of German and Irish troops, whom they regarded 
with undisguised aversion. 

The emperor’s personal character also had suffered. 
His immorality and luxury offended many, especially 
when his expensive living was compared with the 
straits to which his policy had reduced the nation. 
The finances of the country were in such a condition 
as would have already exhausted the patience of the 
most long-suffering people. Besides the enormous 
payments to Portugal, they had to support the 
extravagant expenditure of the emperor, and the 
cost of his foreign mercenaries, and unpopular wars. 
In a country where gold and silver abounded in the 
shape of ores, the currency was composed altogether 
of copper coin and the notes of an insolvent bank. 

In addition to all these grievances, the militia 
system had been expanded into a species of recruiting 
that differed little from conscription. This ruined 
even Napoleon in the eyes of a nation greedy ot 
military glory: it added grievously in the eyes of 
the Brazilians, who only wanted peace and liberty, to 
the growing unpopularity of the emperor. 


ABDICATION OF CROWN OF PORTUGAL. 


99 


He had one more opportunity given him to regain 
the love and confidence his folly was losing. In the 
month of March, 1826, John vi., the old king of 
Portugal, died; Pedro was unanimously acknow¬ 
ledged as his successor by all ranks of his Brazilian 
subjects. In April he testified his interest in his 
European dominion by granting it a constitution. 
The liberals took, or pretended to take fright. All 
their work was going to be undone—the emperor 
was hankering after the old country—king of 
Portugal was an older title than emperor of Brazil— 
Brazil would soon be a mere colony again, given up, 
bound hand and foot, by their own elected sovereign, 
to the dominion they had lately shaken off. 

This difficulty Dom Pedro easily met. It involved 
no personal sacrifice, no self-denial, and his good 
sense saw in it at once an opportunity of proving to 
his people, discontented and distrustful, that he was 
as loyal to them as ever. He acted as wisely and 
decisively as in his earlier days, when he cried 
independence or death, or when he dissolved the 
ungovernable assembly at the point of the bayonet. 
On the 2nd of May he abdicated the Portuguese 
throne in favour of his daughter Maria; and two 
days afterwards the Brazilian chambers, which he 
had taken this opportunity of at last convoking, 
met in a paroxysm of renewed loyalty. 

They allowed him, as a proof of their appreciation 
of his abdication, a civil list for that year to the 
amount of a tenth part of the whole income of the 
empire ; but then, like one of the old English 
parliaments, they set themselves to petition against 
grievances, to watch every action with suspicion, 
and to weary the sovereign wdth resolutions and 

h 2 


100 


BRAZIL. 


complaints. For these there soon were only too 
serious grounds. 

Dom Pedro let his last opportunity slip. He had 
thrown in his lot with his Brazilian subjects, and 
they were grateful; but there he stopped. Con¬ 
ciliate them, or yield to them, he would not; and 
thenceforward there was war unceasing and bitter' 
between them, until he fled for rest to the very 
kingdom he had abdicated. The ministry was, or 
was suspected of being, absolutist; and the assembly 
refused to pass their measures. The emperor 
dismissed them, and chose others, but still from the 
unpopular party. These fared no better, and he 
changed them again, and again, and again. Still, 
however, he steadily refused to call the liberals to 
power; and, accordingly, to the popularity of their 
principles was added the popularity arising from a 
feeling for fair play, and that each party ought at 
least to have its turn. Now and then, indeed, a 
liberal member was selected, but could only take 
office on the terms of abandoning his party and his 
political faith. 

The measures of the government continued to be 
unpopular, and unsuccessful. Reciprocity treaties, 
in which the people complained that the reciprocity 
was all on the wrong side, were concluded with 
Austria, Prussia, England, the Hanseatic towns, 
America, Denmark, and the Netherlands. 

In 1828, the Brazilian forces experienced a 
ruinous and disgraceful defeat in a battle with the 
army of the Argentine republic. The Irish and 
German mercenaries mutinied in Rio, and foi 
three days there was street-fighting in the capital. 
The Brazilian fleet blockading Buenos Ayres 


DISAFFECTION TO THE EMPEROR. 


101 


captured some American and French ships. France 
and the United States immediately demanded repara¬ 
tion, and threatened war; the government yielded, 
and paid large sums to avert hostilities. The same 
folly was repeated, and with a like result, towards 
England; and the interference of Britain was not 
confined to the demand of compensation: the 
English government compelled the emperor to make 
a humiliating peace with Buenos Ayres, and re¬ 
nounce all claim to Banda Oriental, which thence¬ 
forward became an independent republic, under the 
name of Uruguay. 

The financial embarrassment increased to such 
a degree as to threaten national bankruptcy. 

The emperor still persevered in his arbitrary course, 
supported by the Portuguese or absolutist party. 
Some bills for the further development of the con¬ 
stitution he refused to sign. 

The whole country was in a sore and savage 
humour. Dishonoured abroad—unsuccessful, dis¬ 
ordered, and almost bankrupt at home—the Brazilians 
daily more and more laid all evils at the emperor’s 
door; and while in this temper, the election of the 
new deputies in 1829 took place. From every 
constituency, none but ultra-liberals were returned : 
the opposition to the emperor and the government 
was embittered by a step he took that savoured too 
much of another coup-d’etat not to be contemplated 
without the profoundest alarm. An election row 
in a village in Pernambuco was magnified into a 
riot; the habeas corpus was suspended, and a 
military commission appointed to try even civilians. 
The chambers refused to discuss anything else, and 
spent all their time in resolving that the ministers 


102 


BRAZIL. 


who advised this measure ought to be impeached. 
The emperor threatened them so significantly, that 
this subject was at last dropped. 

In 1830, the new chambers assembled; and to 
such a degree had the emperor alienated all affection, 
that every member but the ministers was in opposi¬ 
tion. They showed their distrust by adopting a 
criminal code abolishing the punishment of death 
for political offences, and refused to grant the 
civil list till the foreign regiments had been dis¬ 
banded. 

The same spirit affected all ranks of the people. 
Wherever the emperor went, he was received with 
marked coldness; and the national disapprobation 
of his vices, and enmity to his person, were shown 
by contrast in the enthusiasm with which his em¬ 
press and her infant son were everywhere greeted. 

Just at this time Charles x. of France fell a 
victim to exactly the same course of action that 
Dom Pedro was now pursuing. The example was 
not lost on the Brazilians. The republicans and 
even the moderate liberals conceived the idea of 
adapting the constitution to the model of the United 
States, with the one difference that the emperor 
was to be the hereditary president. His proclama¬ 
tions against their scheme were so coldly received, 
and it so evidently found favour in the eyes of many, 
that he yielded at last, in alarm, and dismissed his 
ministers. He called, in their stead, not the re¬ 
presentatives of the majority in the chamber, but 
the more violent liberals to his councils, with the 
view either of disgusting the country with liberal 
measures, or of inducing the new ministry to desert 
their principles. 


DISTURBANCES. 


103 


They did not last long. Weary of the empire 
his own perverseness had made so uneasy, the 
emperor turned his eyes towards Portugal. He 
fancied, or had been assured, that his presence there 
would rally round him all the discontented spirits 
of Spain and Portugal, and that he might succeed 
in establishing his sway over the whole peninsula. 

Counting, apparently,' on this brilliant prospect, 
lie cared less and less what his Brazilian subjects 
said or thought, and once more dismissed the liberal 
ministry, and surrounded himself again with the 
partisans of absolutism. 

The patience of the country was altogether 
exhausted. An immense multitude assembled in 
the Campo de Santa Anna, calling aloud for the 
re-instatement of the popular ministers. Every hour 
added to the number and the tumult. The emperor 
sent a magistrate to read a justification of his con¬ 
duct to the mob. The paper was snatched from his 
hands, and torn to pieces almost before he had 
finished, and, in terror lest he should follow his 
document, the functionary retreated. The populace 
in their turn sent messengers to the palace, insist¬ 
ing on the recall of the patriots. The emperor 
heard them patiently, and answered: “I will do 
everything for the people, nothing by the people.” 
The storm could not be allayed by epigrams, and 
the answer was greeted with a storm of hisses, 
hooting, and rebellious cries. The soldiery left their 
barracks and fraternized with the people, who armed 
themselves from the arsenals and military store¬ 
houses. Even the imperial guard left the palace, 
and joined the insurgents. 

The Portuguese or imperial party, in dread of 


101 


BKAZIL. 


massacre, hid in holes and corners, and left their 
unfortunate master and his empress almost literally 
alone. Still no excess was committed. The people 
showed a patience utterly beyond the power of any 
French or Spanish mob that ever assembled. With 
the whole capital absolutely in their hands, with 
the police and soldiery on their side, and with no 
barrier between them and *their victims, no blood 
was shed, and no pillage indulged in. It was well 
for Rio that its inhabitants had had a taste of 
constitutional freedom. The same feelings that 
made the difference between an ancient Roman and 
an ancient Grecian political tumult, the same value 
for the lives of their fellow-citizens, the same love 
of order, the same hope that their constitution 
contained some provisions whereby they could 
eventually gain their ends without bloodshed, kept 
them from imitating the followers of Robespierre. 

Still tbe emperor held out. The only sign of 
yielding he gave was to send a police officer to 
search for a patriot of the name of Vergueiro, who 
had great influence with the people. Whether from 
accident or design, he was not to be found. The 
last envoy from the people pressed for a final answer, 
warning the emperor that the mob would not bear 
to be trifled with or resisted much longer. The 
emperor replied that his honour and the constitution 
forbade him to yield. With this the messenger 
at two o’clock in the morning was departing, when 
the emperor begged him to wait a moment, and 
sitting down at his desk, wrote his last message to 
his Brazilian subjects. 

“ Availing myself of the right which the constitu¬ 
tion concedes to me, I declare that I have voluntarily 


ABDICATION OF DOM PEDRO. 


105 


abdicated in favour of my dearly beloved and 
esteemed son, Dom Pedro de Alcantara.” Hand¬ 
ing it to the envoy, he burst into tears, and with 
some incoherent expressions of regret, and affec¬ 
tion for his angry people, rushed into an inner 
apartment. 

Six days afterwards, in an English vessel of war, 
he sailed out of the harbour of Rio, and said farewell 
to his child, his people, and his empire. 


( 106 ) 


CHAPTEK IV- 

HISTORY OF BRAZIL, FROM THE ABDICATION OF DOM PEDRO I. 

TO THE PRESENT TIME. 

Proclamation of Dom Pedro n.—‘Tranquillity—Progress—State of parties - 
Democratic doctrine that the emperor was of age at fourteen—The debate on 
it—The emperor’s assent—His accession—Personal character of the present 
emperor—His urbanity—Opening the chambers—The emperor and “the 
sovereigns”—His abilities and attainments—Royal residences—The em¬ 
peror's message to the chambers. 

The new emperor was not six years old: the people 
were in a state of revolution : the national exchequer 
was almost empty, and the national bank chronically 
bankrupt. There was no army, no ministry: all 
the officials had disappeared. “ Woe unto thee, 0 
land!” said the wise man, “when thy king is a 
child.” He would not have been a rash prophet who 
should now have foretold of Brazil years of sanguinary 
convulsion, of degradation, and ultimate ruin or sub¬ 
jection to some stronger power. 

It was not so; and in the fact, that out of such 
unpromising circumstances the Brazilians have built 
up their country into peace, progress, and plenty, is 
the surest evidence that they are able to understand 
and value, and worthy to hold, the priceless but 
sometimes volatile gift of orderly liberty. 

Before the uncrowned emperor had left the harbour, 
they proved that the intense love of royalty, its pomp 
and dignity, which has always distinguished the 
Portuguese race, was as strong as ever. The crowd 
that had been threatening the father, drew the son 


POLITICAL DANGERS. 


107 


in triumph through the city. The boy-sovereign 
was placed in a window of the palace, and for hours 
the vast multitude thronged past, shouting and 
blessing him. 

The Brazilians gave a better proof than shouts 
and blessings of their fitness for freedom. The 
tranquillity of the country was hardly disturbed: 
the mass of the people set their faces sternly against 
disorder and license. The flames of revolution 
found no fuel in a nation that so loved order, and 
that so trusted in itself. Riots and disturbances 
there were, as was to be expected ; but the patriotic, 
though turbulent family of the Andradas was again 
supreme; and, aided by the clearly expressed sense 
of the people, they promptly suppressed every 
tumult. 

Nevertheless, the empire needed all the self- 
control, and all the talent it contained, to bring it 
safe out of the condition in which the late emperor 
had left it. Rigid economy had to be practised : 
commercial fraud, official incompetence, and mis¬ 
behaviour had to be stringently repressed. Order 
at home and honour abroad had to be maintained in 
spite of an almost exhausted exchequer; and, most 
difficult of all, the successive regents had to be 
watched and checked with unceasing vigilance; and 
at the same time the power of the executive had to 
be loyally maintained. 

Through all their troubles, year after year, to the 
surprise of other countries, the Brazilians and their 
rulers struggled with increasing success and credit. 
There were furious scenes in the chambers : regent 
after regent fell—Andrada, Carvalho, Muniz, Feijo, 
and Lima. Ministers denounced the opposition in 


108 


BRAZIL. 


unmeasured terms: the opposition tripped up the 
heels of ministers, and were in their turn stigmatized, 
in almost English fashion, as the vilest and the worst 
of tyrants. Constitutional machinery creaks loudly 
in -working, and, to those accustomed only to the 
silent smoothness and rapidity of despotism, often 
seems to be going to pieces; but it is the safest 
engine on the whole, and its very noise is not un- 
frequently its preservation. 

As abuse after abuse was remedied, and reform 
after reform was carried into practical and visible 
effect, the people gained more and more confidence 
in their constitution. Since they got what they 
needed in the way of noisy freedom, of what good 
were hidden plots and bloody riots ? 

It would be uninteresting, and useless, to follow 
minutely the various shiftings and changes of the 
ministries, the provincial disturbances, the adminis¬ 
trative reforms, the loans for the relief of the over¬ 
burdened finances, the fierce debates, and the change 
of regency. We see the same kind of things going 
on, more or less, every day in England. 

The natural tendency of the popular mind, after 
the victory over their arbitrary sovereign, had been 
towards practical republicanism. This gave strength 
to the ultra-liberal party, to whom, with the zeal of 
renegades, the old absolutists had allied themselves. 
On the other side, of course, sprang up a re-actionary 
party, who were for the recall of the emperor, and 
the old order of things more or less modified. Be¬ 
tween these were the moderate party, with whom 
were the feeling of the country, the regency, and the 
majority in the chambers. 

The attacks of the Brazilian jacobites, as they may 


MONARCHICAL REACTION. 


109 


be called, were confined to the chambers; those of 
the republicans and ultra-liberals convulsed the pro¬ 
vinces, and the revolts had to be put down by the 
sword. Nevertheless, they succeeded in giving to 
the country more of federal and republican character 
than it had yet possessed. The provinces, in fact, 
became, by virtue of the new reforms, self-governing 
states ; and after the substitution of one elected regent 
for the original three, there was little but the exist¬ 
ence of a boy-emperor to distinguish the constitution 
from that of the United States. 

The suffering caused by the provincial disturbances 
of the republicans, and the vigorous measures taken 
by the government for their suppression, began to 
disgust the nation with democracy. A strong re¬ 
action set in after the death of the old emperor in 
Portugal in favour of monarchy. The very democrats, 
in opposition to the last regent, found that the only 
successful course of attack left them was to be more 
monarchical than he himself was. They proclaimed 
the doctrine that the emperor’s sister was, on attain¬ 
ing her eighteenth year, entitled of right to be regent. 
The natural deduction was, that if a girl of eighteen 
was fit to rule, a boy of fourteen (the emperor’s age 
at that time), who had already shown singular pre¬ 
cocity and good sense, was still more so. 

The opposition, in the year 1840, began their attack 
on the regent and his government by a motion to 
declare the emperor of age, in spite of the article of 
the constitution which provided that the sovereign 
should not be deemed to have attained his majority 
till eighteen. 

The nation caught at the idea: they were at 
peace, and prosperous; and they were heartily 


110 


BRAZIL. 


weary of the endless struggles for place and power 
between the contending factions, and of the tumults 
they caused. 

The debates began in July. Lima, the then regent, 
was at the height of his power and unpopularity. 
There was a very earnest wish that he might be 
defeated, but, also, a general impression that his 
strong ministerial majority in the chambers would 
enable him at least to postpone his downfall. 

The motion was made, and met by the obvious 
objection that the constitution forbade it, and that 
one branch of the legislature had no power to alter 
the constitution. The opposition maintained that 
the circumstances warranted them in so doing, and 
that in extreme evils the interest of the state required 
extreme measures. This proposition, involving, as 
one of its premises, that the regent and his ministry 
were an extreme evil, naturally provoked warm and 
personal replies. As the dispute proceeded, men’s 
spirits began to get inflamed. The people crowded 
the galleries more and more, still keeping a decorous 
silence, but following with looks of increasing ex¬ 
citement and interest the changes of the long debate. 

Antonio Carlos de Andrada, one of the younger 
members of the great house, a man of learning and 
talent and of undoubted patriotism, but at the same 
time of a fiery temper, was the leader of the attack. 
He boldly accused the regent and ministers of 
usurpation and unconstitutional tyranny—at least, 
since the princess attained eighteen. 

His declamation had great effect, and it began to 
be confidently whispered that the ministerial ranks 
were wavering. A powerful supporter of the govern¬ 
ment, Galvao, who was expected to speak on its side 


MOVEMENT IN THE CHAMBERS. 


Ill 


to the astonishment of all broke out into a philippic 
against his own party, and vehemently urged the 
immediate proclamation of the emperor, and the 
abolition of the regency. 

The government men grew uneasy; and, fully 
conscious that hundreds of attentive ears were listen¬ 
ing from the packed and ominous galleries, and that 
excited thousands outside were immediately informed 
of the sense of every speech, were still more disturbed 
by the bold assertion of an eminent member, Alvares 
Machado, “ That the cause of the emperor was the 
cause of the nation, and ought to receive the appro¬ 
bation of every lover of his country.” 

The language of the opposition grew more and 
more threatening. Navarro, a deputy from Mato 
Grosso, one of the great mining districts, was in the 
full tide of vehement denunciation of the regent, and 
all that he had ever done : the galleries, in breath¬ 
less silence, were hanging on his words: suddenly 
he shouted, “ Hurrah for his imperial majesty’s 
majority.” In an instant, spectators, audience and 
opposition, burst into a thundering and uncontrollable 
roar of applause. Navarro drew his handkerchief 
from his bosom and waved it. The ministerialists, 
some fearing this was a preconcerted signal, and 
others seeing, or pretending to see, the glimmer of a 
dagger in his hand, rose to fly : one seized the excited 
speaker, who struggled violently : it was not for 
some time that anything like order was restored. 

Meanwhile, the news had reached the crowds out¬ 
side ; and through the whole city spread the cry, 
“The majority of the emperor!” Some proclaimed 
him in the squares and public places: their shout¬ 
ings penetrated even into the chambers. 


112 


BRAZIL. 


The ministers made a move for delay. Limpo de 
Abreo moved for the appointment of a committee to 
consider the matter; and the opposition, satisfied 
with this much success for the present, at last 
assented. 

The chambers opened next day, amid universal 
expectation : the report of the committee was called 
for, but was not forthcoming. Navarro accused 
them and the government of trifling and treachery; 
and again appealed to the galleries, who again re¬ 
sponded with a deafening roar for the emperor. The 
order of the day was called, but neither opposition 
nor audience would let the president’s voice be 
heard. 

A confused discussion of the subject, to which all 
others were insipid, followed, more to wile away 
the time while waiting for the report, than with the 
hope or intention of arriving at any conclusion. 
The majority of the opposition appeared to desire 
the emperor’s emancipation to be immediate: the 
minority of moderate members were for deferring it 
a. few months, till his birthday, the 2nd of December. 
The point was soon decided for them. 

A messenger from the regent entered, and handed 
two documents to the secretary: one was an 
appointment of Vasconcellos as minister of the 
empire; the other was a prorogation till November. 

The people in the galleries, the deputies, even the 
ministerial members, went into a fresh paroxysm of 
rage and loyalty. All that Lord Bute was to our 
grandfathers, and more, Vasconcellos was to the 
Brazilians: he was a man of great standing and 
political experience, and considerable eloquence, but 
notoriously factious, selfish, and immoral': he had 


DECISION FOR THE EMPEROR’S MAJORITY. 113 

been the rancorous opponent of most of the regents, 
and of most popular measures for years past. The 
present regent was, men believed, his creature, and 
every evil was laid with accumulated interest at the 
door of the man who was supposed to be the guilty 
and subtle puller of the wires. 

The prorogation at such a time was looked on 
with deep irritation—so deep that it was not sub¬ 
mitted to: the president was prevented from read¬ 
ing it. Amid the shouts of the people, Antonio 
Andrada called upon the house and strangers to 
follow him to the senate. The Brazilian house of lords 
received them with open arms: the two houses ap¬ 
pointed a deputation to the emperor himself, request¬ 
ing his own consent to his immediate proclamation. 
While waiting its return, the senators exerted them¬ 
selves to the utmost to keep the vast masses of people 
quiet. The deputation returned: his majesty had 
assented, ordered the regent to revoke his decrees, 
pronounced the chambers again in session, and pro¬ 
mised forthwith to take the oaths and reins of 
government. 

After the first burst of enthusiasm and noise was 
over, and the crowds of people had retired^ rejoicing 
and appeased, the senate and chambers entered, with 
almost an English love of precedent and order, on 
the discussion of the knotty point of what they were. 
Were they a parliament? Then they ought not to 
be sitting together; and each body ought to have its 
own president; and moreover they were legally 
prorogued by the constituted authority, and the 
young emperor had no power to reverse that proro¬ 
gation. Were they not ' Then they were only a 
sort of rebellious committee of public safety; and 


114 


BRAZIL. 


nothing they did, said, or sanctioned, could have any 
binding effect on the nation. The marquis of Parana- 
gua, president of the senate, the Brazilian lord chan¬ 
cellor, so to speak, solved, or rather cut the difficult 
knot in a complimentary and courtly, and, on the 
whole, satisfactory way. He decided “ that neither 
house was now in session, but that the members of 
both constituted an august popular assemblage, per¬ 
sonifying the nation, demanding that their emperor 
be no longer considered a minor.” 

This perhaps rather magniloquent solution satisfied 
the houses ; but that their happy concord should 
not be disturbed, they determined not to separate, 
but to sit up all night, till on the morrow the 
emperor should take the oaths, and become, de facto 
as well as de jure, sovereign. 

By daylight the people began to assemble again. 
The rolls of both houses were called over; and the 
president made a solemn declaration of the emperor’s 
majority. In due time the sovereign began his progress 
through the crowded streets. The sight of his plea¬ 
sant, boyish face—even now in his mature manhood 
singularly handsome—and his tall, well-grown form, 
delighted his excitable people. They thronged round 
his carriage as he drove to the senate, with cries of 
boisterous loyalty; and it did not evaporate in 
noise, for from that day to this it has hardly ever 
wavered. There is not perhaps in the world a more 
beloved sovereign than Horn Pedro n., emperor of 
Brazil. 

The young emperor took the oaths before the 
assembled houses, read the address that Andrada had 
prepared, and held his first reception the same even¬ 
ing. The whole city blazed with illuminations. The 


THE EMPEROR ASSUMES AUTHORITY. 


115 


news spread throughout the empire; and, without 
the shedding of a drop of blood, the only violation 
of the constitution the Brazilians have ever allowed 
themselves was completed, and the young emperor 
ascended the throne he now fills so worthily, and 
which it is the hope of his people and of all who 
wish his vast country well, that he may long continue 
to occupy. 

From that time to this the progress of the nation 
has been steady and prosperous. There have been 
tumults and occasional disturbances, but hardly more 
than a like period has often seen among us ; and we 
may look with good hope to still more rapid growth, 
still more settled freedom, still more extended intelli¬ 
gence, and enlightened acquaintance with the gospel 
of salvation, under the favouring hand of God, through 
the established system of complete religious tolera¬ 
tion and freedom. 

The emperor married Dona Theresa, sister of the 
king of Naples; and their family consists of two 
daughters, their only son having died in infancy. 
His eldest sister was the late queen of Portugal, 
and was married to prince Ferdinand of Saxe Coburg 
Gotha. His two other sisters are respectively mar¬ 
ried to the prince de Joinville, and the count of 
Aquila, brother to the king of Naples. 

The American authors, whose work has been men¬ 
tioned already, speak with great admiration of the 
personal character and attainments of the emperor; 
and we may conclude this chapter, and with it our 
sketch of the history of Brazil, with a few extracts 
from their book. 

The emperor and empress are on excellent terms 
with their subjects, and mingle with them freely. 

i 2 


116 


BKAZIL. 


Dr. Kidder describes a religious festival attended by 
the imperial family, who, when the weather permits, 
leave their carriages at the foot of the hill, and slowly 
ascend the steep path that leads to the church: this 
has been previously strewn with wild flowers and 
cinnamon leaves. 

“ On these occasions, troops of young girls in 
white, from the different boarding-schools, are in 
waiting at the top, to kiss the hands of their majes¬ 
ties. This is the prettiest part of the exhibition; 
the emperor, with his stately form, and the empress 
with her good-humoured smile, passing slowly 
through the lines of bright-eyed girls, who are not 
without a slight idea of their own prominent part in 
the graceful group.” 

The authors thus describe the opening of the cham¬ 
bers by the emperor“ The great Park, or Campo de 
Santa Anna, in Eio de Janeiro, presents an animated 
scene on the 3rd of May, when the assemblea geral 
is opened by the emperor in person. The procession 
from San Christovao to the palace of the senate is not 
surpassed in scenic effect by any similar pageant in 
Europe. The foot-guards with their battle-axes, the 
dragoons and the hussars in picturesque and bright 
uniforms, and mounted military bands, the large 
state carriages, with their six caparisoned horses 
and liveried coachmen and postilions, the chariot of 
the empress drawn by eight iron-greys, the magnifi¬ 
cent imperial carriage drawn by the same number 
of milk-white horses decked with prince-of-wales 
plumes, and the long cavalcade of troups, form a 
pageant worthy of the empire. The six coaches and 
six are for the officers 'of the imperial household. 
Her majesty, Dona Theresa, is surrounded with her 


OPENING OP THE ASSEMBLY 









































































































































































I 




































































. 































































: 

































DOM PEDRO AND THE AMERICAN STEAMER. 119 

maids of honour, in their robes of green and 
gold. 

“ The opening of the chamber is always performed by 
his majesty in person. He reads a brief address from 
the throne, setting forth the condition and necessities 
of the empire, and then pronouncing the session 
open, descends from the dais, followed in procession 
to his imperial carriage by all the dignitaries of 
court and members of assembly. The cortege re¬ 
turns to San Christovao through streets that are 
decorated with hangings of crimson silk, and satin 
brocade.” 

Some years ago, a large American merchant 
steamer, “ The City of Pittsburg,” with a crowd of 
Californian emigrants on board, was in the harbour. 
The captain invited the emperor on board to take a 
sail. His majesty courteously accepted the invita¬ 
tion; and the huge vessel (2200 tons) ploughed 
her way through the ships in the harbour, amid the 
shouts of the seamen, and the thunder of the cannon. 
With that inquisitive thirst for information that 
distinguishes him, Horn Pedro moved about the 
vessel, here and there and everywhere. First he 
examined how the coals w r ere stowed ; then he 
watched the great high-pressure engine at work; 
then he must needs go down into the engine room, 
and talk with the engineers. He got so interested, 
that he spent half an hour afterwards in studying the 
plan of the machinery. Captain Foster hoped he 
was stationary: not a bit of it. Followed by the 
anxious commander, he walked off to the forward 
deck, where the miners were collected. No one 
could stop him; but all the courteous Americans were 
in a great tremor as to how the rough people would 


120 


BRAZIL. 


receive an emperor. The captain’s heart died within 
h im. The emperor walked politely into the middle of 
the crowd: suddenly an unshaven digger called out, 
“ Boys ! three cheers for the emperorand all the 
diggers shouted obediently. The emperor bowed 
gravely; the captain breathed freely ; and the whole 
royal party were so pleased, that the trip was pro¬ 
longed to the great discomfort of some of them. 

The emperor’s inquisitiveness has produced good 
fruit: his attainments are very considerable in most 
branches of science. While quite a boy, he heard 
that a Dr. Reinhardt was about to commence an 
exploring expedition. The opportunity was too good 
to be lost. The young sovereign sent for the savant, 
and, regardless of time and of the heat of a tropical 
climate, went through a number of new chemical 
experiments he had read of in the European journals 
of science, but which he had been unable to perform 
without competent assistance. 

He is a good practical engineer, and a fair artist: 
his linguistic attainments are altogether above the 
ordinary run: he can speak six languages, and can 
translate out of all the chief European tongues. 
Travellers who have been favoured with a personal 
interview remark that it seems impossible to start any 
subject which is unfamiliar to this prince. 

His literary acquirements are considerable, and 
his love of books insatiable. He never misses a 
meeting of the Brazilian Historical Society, and is 
intimately acquainted with all European literature. 
Literary men have found in him a munificent bene¬ 
factor. It is highly to his credit, that when M. 
de Lamartine was in deep pecuniary distress, the 
emperor ordered five thousand copies of his last 


THE EJIFEROR’s LITERARY TASTES. 


121 


work, and in this delicate way contrived to aid him 
more materially than any one else. Mr. Longfellow, 
we are told, is his favourite poet. Indeed, his 
majesty has, it is whispered, himself achieved certain 
productions, strictly kept private, of which not a few 
are in rhyme ; one has somehow slipped out—a poem 
in Portuguese, of which the following is a metrical 
translation by Mr. D. Bates of Philadelphia. It may 
be remarked that the original is about half the length 
of the translation. 

“ If I am pious, clement, just. 

I'm only what I ought to be: 

The sceptre is a weighty trust, 

A great responsibility. 

And he who rules with faithful hand, 

With depth of thought, and breadth of range, 

The sacred laws should understand. 

But must not, at his pleasure, change. 

“ The chair of justice is the throne : 

Who takes it bows to higher laws : 

The public good, and not his own, 

Demands his care in every cause. 

Neglect of duty, always wrong, 

Detestable in young or old, 

By him, whose place is high and strong, 

Is magnified a thousand-fold. 

“ When in the east the glorious sun 

Spreads o’er the earth the light of day, 

All know the course that he will run, 

Nor wonder at his light or way; 

But if, perchance, the light that blazed 
Is dimmed by shadows lying near, 

The startled world looks on amazed, 

And each one watches it with fear. 

“ I, likewise, if I always give 

To vice and virtue their rewards, 

But do my duty thus to live; 

No one his thanks to me accords. 

But should I fail to act my part, 

Or wrongly do, or leave undone, 

Surprised, the people then would start 
With fear, as at the shadowed sun.” 

The excellence of the sentiments, and the youth of 


122 


BRAZIL. 


the royal poet, may excuse any defects of the poetry. 
Let us hope that he may keep to the principles, and 
improve in their expression. 

Some Americans, in 1854, set on foot an exhibition 
of arts and manufactures in Brazil. The emperor 
gave them a large hall in the national museum, and 
showed the most intense interest in the whole un¬ 
dertaking. When he received a present of all Mr. 
Longfellow’s works, he burst into exclamations of 
delighted enthusiasm, and said to Mr. Fletcher, 
“ When you return to your country, have the kind¬ 
ness to say to Mr. Longfellow how much pleasure he 
has given me; and be pleased to tell him how much I 
esteem him—how much I love him.” 

The royal residences are generally two: one is the 
palace of Boa Vista or Sao Christo vao, outside Eio 
a beautiful and picturesquely situated mansion at the 
foot of the mountains of Tijuca,—-this is the town 
palace; the other is at Petropolis, some distance 
north of the capital. The first emperor bought fhe 
land around the new town, then a mere village, 
called Corrego Secco, in order to form a colony there 
of the industrious German emigrants, who were 
flocking over at the time to the new field of labour. 
The design was interrupted by his abdication; but 
the present emperor is carrying it out. The colony 
now contains 10,000 inhabitants, and is fast becom¬ 
ing, from the beauty and healthiness of its mountain 
situation, the fashionable country resort of the wealthy 
Eio citizens. “ Nothing,” says Dr. Fletcher, “ can 
exceed the beauty of the vicinity. Eoads, bordered 
by villas, stretch away from the centre, between 
hills still covered with virgin forest. Many of these, 
inhabited by the German colonists, bear the name of 


THE PALACE OF BOA VISTA 






















































































































































































































































































































































































































PETROPOLIS. 


125 


places in tlieir fatherland, and the mind is plea¬ 
santly transported to scenes in the old world. The 
high road to the mining districts is through Pe¬ 
tropolis, and troops of mules, laden with coffee, 
sugar, and sometimes gold, are perpetually passing 
down to the head of the hay, where their loads are 
transferred to falluas and steamers, to be transported 
to the city.” 

The palace of the emperor stands in the centre of 
the town, and when finished and surrounded by 
cultivated grounds will present a beautiful appear¬ 
ance. Small streams intersect the streets, and are 
crossed by bridges, adding much to the singular 
aspect of the place. 

There is more rain among the hills of Petropolis 
than in Eio, which creates a luxurious vegetation un¬ 
known to the sultrier lowlands. The population is 
increasing so rapidly, that in a few years it will, in 
all probability, be the second city of the empire. 
Could Dom Pedro devise, or get devised, a railway 
that would run up the mountains, it would become 
so at once. He does not despair of attaining this 
desideratum : the Dom Pedro n. railroad is extending 
its branches in every direction; and Cathcart’s loco¬ 
motive, which will climb a gradient of four hundred 
feet to the mile, would overcome even the steep hills 
of Petropolis. Were it to be established, one of ihe 
most glorious countries in the world would be opened 
to the traveller. Nothing can surpass the beauty of 
some of the mountain passes and cascades on the 
road that leads from the coast to the great table lands 
of the interior. The falls of Itamarity, or “ shining 
stones,” are spoken of by all travellers as equal to 
anything in the old world. The emperor has shown 


126 


BRAZIL. 


taste as well as wisdom in selecting as liis country 
residence so beautiful as well as so important a spot. 

In concluding this chapter, and taking leave of 
the history of Brazil and of her emperor, we can 
hardly do better than quote the simple and manly 
language with which he opened the imperial chamber 
in 1857. Where the sovereign can speak, and the 
parliament relish and act on such straightforward 
and common sense wisdom, there cannot but be 
good hope and a bright future, under God, for him 
and his people. 

“ I am highly gratified in opening the first sitting of the present legislature. 
Your reunion, always full of hope, is still more promising in view of the general 
tendency of the public mind towards concord and moderation, which will receive 
a new impulse from your desire to promote the happiness of the country. 

“ The tranquillity reigning throughout the empire is one of the results of the 
policy which filled the hearts of the Brazilians with the conviction that, under 
the shelter of our institutions, faithfully maintained, we may, with security and 
glory, advance in the career of progress and civilization. 

“ The relations of the empire with other nations continue in a peaceful and 
friendly state; and it is my constant endeavour to cultivate them in the sense 
of the most perfect cordiality, basing them always on the solid grounds of justice 
and mutual interest. 

“ My government employed the means voted in the last legislative session 
for the development of the immigration of useful and honest working-people ; 
and it is one of its constant efforts to watch over this vital element of our 
national industry. With the resources at the disposal of my government, and 
certain measures which will in time be solicited from your patriotism, calculated 
to secure the civil rights of individuals who profess different religions, I hope 
we shall arrive at that important end, obtaining at the same time the increase 
of our industrial population. 

“ The extraordinary price of all kinds of provisions is causing great suffering 
among the less wealthy classes of society, and demands of your enlightened zeal 
some adequate legislation. The reduction in the new customs’-tariff is not suffi¬ 
cient to obtain this result. 

“ The vigour with which the last two attempts to introduce African slaves at 
Serinhaear and St. Matthew’s were suppressed, must have discouraged the adven¬ 
turers who deemed it a proper occasion to carry out their criminal enterprises. 

“ I again recommend to you the reform of the mortgage law, which, by facili¬ 
tating the system of advances on landed security, will have a decisive and im¬ 
mediate influence on the future of our agriculture. 

“The army and navy require measures which may improve their discipline, 
and a criminal code of procedure which shall secure prompt punishment and the 
execution of judgments. 



FALLS OF 1TAMAUITY 










































































THE EMPEROR S SPEECH. 


129 


“ I also call your special attention to the project of law concerning the pro- 
motion of marine officers, which is depending on your approbation, as well as to 
the necessity of modifying in the most convenient way the rules regarding the 
system of recruiting. 

“The reforms carried out in the different branches of instruction are producing 
the wished-for results. 

% 

“ The satisfactory state of the public revenues permits us to indulge in the hope 
that the anticipated deficit, in view of which the increase of two per cent, in the 
export duties was decreed, will not occur, and we may therefore either look for 
their abolition at an early date, or devote them to such purposes as are particu¬ 
larly interesting to our agriculture. 

“ August and most worthy representatives of the country, your task is a diffi¬ 
cult one, but the certainty of the reward to which you nobly aspire—of seeing 
our country in a prosperous state—encourages you constantly; and my govern¬ 
ment will prove worthy of your support by the discretion with which it will 
employ the means granted to it to aid you in the glorious achievement of so 
sacred a duty.” 


4 


K 


130 


# 

CHAPTER V. 

THE RELIGION AND RELIGIOUS CONDITION OF BRAZIL. 

Religion generally—Brazil Roman Catholic—Is an exception to the general cha¬ 
racter of Roman Catholic countries—Reasons—Clerical celibacy—Feijo—Un¬ 
popularity of the papacy and its ministers -Corruption of the clergy— Great 
change probable—Forms of Brazilian religion—No preaching—Padres—Ad¬ 
vertisements — Festivals — Ecclesiastical buildings — St. Anthony—Now a 
colonel—Readiness in Brazil to receive instruction and Bibles—Dr. Kidder’s 
missionary experience—Slavery in Brazil—Coffee-carriers—Minas negroes— 
The republic of Palmares—Capoeiros—State of slaves. 


The most interesting question to a Christian, in 
obtaining and arranging his information about any 
country, is its religious condition. Most profoundly, 
indeed, must every changed heart be moved in con¬ 
sidering how far millions of his fellow-creatures, 
though different in country and in tongue, enjoy or 
have profited by the knowledge of the good news of 
God’s great love to man. And where he finds that 
Jesus, and his free salvation, are not know r n, or known 
but in name, his feeling will be that of the apostle, 
when, in the visions of the night, the man of Mace¬ 
donia put up his prayers, “ Come over and help us.” 
Nothing can so arouse our truest philanthropy as 
the felt personal love of our Saviour to us, and ours 
to him. A man who knows his own sin, and its 
exceeding sinfulness, and has been led by the Holy 
Spirit to cast himself just as he is on the offered 
mercy of God in Christ Jesus, will not be satisfied 
with safety for himself alone. “ Go ye into all the 
world, and preach the gospel to every creature,” will 


RELIGIOUS DEFICIENCY. 


131 


be to him the very rule of his life thenceforth. The 
nearer he lives to God, the more steadily, lovingly, 
and earnestly, in season and out of season, with faith, 
patience, and prayer, will he labour in his own 
sphere to spread the knowledge of the love of a 
Saviour to sinful men as widely as he can. And 
therefore the state of a people in the sight of God 
can never be a matter of little moment to him. Is 
his Master honoured and served by many faithful 
souls ? He rejoices to think that so many more are 
among the number of God’s elect, and that the day 
of his Saviour’s coming is, humanly speaking, so 
much nearer. Is Christ forgotten, ignorantly wor¬ 
shipped, or forsaken? Is his worship a mockery, 
and is the love of his professing people waxing cold ? 
The Christian’s heart is heavy, and his cry is “ How 
shall they hear without a preacher ?” And remem¬ 
bering, as he will, how closely peace and prosperity 
are connected with godliness which “ has the promise 
of the life that now is,” as well as of “ that which is 
to come,” he will hope, and pray, and labour even 
for their material welfare, to spread among the 
wandering and sin-blinded nations the light of the 
glorious gospel of Christ. 

To such a man, this beautiful and peaceful western 
empire is a mournful spectacle. God is not honoured 
there; and faith in the crucified Saviour is not the 
ground of what little religious teaching there is. 
The prevalent, indeed almost the only form of re¬ 
ligion, is the Koman Catholic: hut in the free Bra¬ 
zilian empire it is shorn of much of even the worldly 
vigour that it still displays in some of its older 
dominion. In many particulars it offers a strong 
contrast to the fonn it assumes in Europe. 

k 2 


132 


BRAZIL. 


Its professed adherents in Brazil are altogether 
tolerant; and in this particular, of course, they so 
far abjure its nature. By the constitution, and also 
by the universal assent of the people, all men have 
full and entire liberty to profess any religion they 
choose, and to worship God as they like, save only 
that their places of worship must not be “no formo 
do templo ,” in the form of the temple, or church. 
This has been judicially decided to mean only that 
they may not build steeples, or ring bells. 

It is altogether dependent on the civil government, 
in this particular also losing one of its distinctive 
features. By art. 102 of the constitution “ The 
emperor is chief of the executive power, and he 
exercises it by his ministers of state. Their powers 
are, among others, to nominate the bishops, and to 
provide for the ecclesiastical support.” By art. 10, 
“ The provincial assemblies have power to legislate 
in regard to their civil, judicial, and ecclesiastical 
affairs.” No bishop can confer orders without the 
special license of the emperor. Neither bishops nor 
priests can leave their dioceses or parishes without a 
special permit from the government.” 

On many occasions, the general assembly have 
decreed, and passed measures to curtail the jurisdic¬ 
tion of the pope. Once they went so far as to pro¬ 
pose to make the Brazilian church altogether inde¬ 
pendent of the holy see. The chief ground of 
quarrel was the appointment of Antonio Maria de 
Moura to the bishopric of Bio. The pope refused to 
consecrate him; and the Brazilians were so indig¬ 
nant, that the separation of Brazil from the church 
of Borne became a highly popular proposal. This 
the government did not then desire, and persuaded 


FEIJO ON CLERICAL CELIBACY. 


133 


Moura to wave his claim ; and the pope consoled 
him with the appointment of bishop in partibus 
infidelium. The storm blew over, but it loosened 
the ties that bound the empire to the papacy. 

Another cause of dissension has been, and still is, 
the celibacy of the clergy. Feijo, a priest himself, 
and afterwards regent, was struck one evening while 
listening to a debate in the house with the deliberate 
statement of a learned and moderate member, “ that 
the Brazilian clergy were not bound by the law of 
celibacy.” 

Feijo was a member of a committee on ecclesias¬ 
tical affairs, and presented the house with a most 
singular and significant document in the shape of a 
report on clerical celibacy. A competent critic has 
remarked on this tvork, “ It is really a novelty in the 
literary world. It contains unquestionably the best 
argument ever advanced against the constrained celi¬ 
bacy of priests and nuns. It sets forth all a Protest¬ 
ant can say, and what a Roman Catholic priest, in 
spite of every early prejudice, is constrained to say, 
against a cruel and unnatural law, enacted against 
the immovable law of the Almighty Creator. The 
author is master in ancient as well as in modem 
Catholic lore—in canon law, and in the writings of 
the fathers; and we should be amazed and instructed 
by seeing any of his brother prelates in Europe, 
or America, come out with anything like a rational 
answer to ‘ Feijo’s demonstration of the necessity of 
abolishing clerical celibacy.’ ” 

One short extract may be interesting. He delibe¬ 
rately proposes “ that, since celibacy was neither 
enjoined on the clergy by Divine law nor apostolical 
institutions, but, on the contrary, was the source of 


134 


BRAZIL. 


immorality amongst them, therefore, the assembly 
should revoke the law that constrained it, and notify 
the pope of Eome of the necessity of revoking the 
ecclesiastical penalties against clerical matrimony; 
and, in case these were not revoked within a given 
time, that they should be nullified.” 

This bold priest was neither burned, excommuni¬ 
cated, nor unfrocked; on the contrary, with univer¬ 
sal approbation, he was successively appointed 
minister of state, regent, and senator for life. The 
government subsequently offered him the bishopric 
of Mariana, but he declined it. A pension of four 
thousand milreis was granted to him, and in 1843 he 
died, full of years and honours, and in peace. The 
Roman Catholic church must be weak indeed in 
Brazil. 

The civil power, in conformity with the constitu¬ 
tion, is invariably exerted on the side of toleration: 
to all bigotry it has offered steady and constant 
opposition. 

A few years ago, the pope appointed Monsignor 
Bedini, the archbishop of Thebes, and late legate in 
the United States, to be nuncio to the court of Brazil. 
His eminence visited Petropolis, and there found the 
German Protestant colony we have already men¬ 
tioned. Many intermarriages had been celebrated 
between the heretical Germans and the orthodox 
Brazilians. On the delinquents descended the wrath¬ 
ful bishop, who had promised his holiness that he 
would “ bind this empire faster than ever to the 
chair of St. Peter.” Without more ado, he declared 
all the mixed marriages void, and all the children 
illegitimate. The whole population of Rio, as well 
as Petropolis, broke out into a storm of indignation. 


STATE OF THE PRIESTHOOD. 


135 


The newspapers reviled the nuncio; the people 
laughed at him; the married couples gave no heed 
to his denunciations; the leading journals adminis¬ 
tered grave rebukes. “ Propositions,” said the govern¬ 
ment organ, “ like those emitted from the chair of 
truth by a priest of the character of M. Bedini, are 
eminently censurable.” The secular arm and the 
law were deaf, and made no sign, while these rebel¬ 
lious sons of the church censured and defied the 
vicegerent of their spiritual and infallible head. 
The nuncio retreated with querulous complaints, 
“ that the emperor would not take sides in the con¬ 
troversy and use his influence to prevent the spread 
of Protestant heresies.” 

This toleration must not be supposed to arise 
altogether from enlightenment. The chief causes ol 
it, at least at present, undoubtedly are the fewness, 
the ignorance, and the prevailing immorality and 
corruption of the Brazilian priesthood. The number 
of clergy put down in the budget is only 1607. This, 
even if it be not an over estimate, includes many 
who never pretend to officiate; and compared to 
the number of the population more than seven mil¬ 
lions—the disproportion is great. The regular clergy, 
or monks, are dying out: their vast convents have 
not inmates enough to keep them clean ; and, since 
no new admissions are permitted without the sanction 
of the government, their decay is certain : and, as 
to the clergy generally, the minister of justice offi¬ 
cially states that twice as many priests die and 
become incapable as are ordained. }> 

“Such is the ignorance of the priests,’ said a 
padre to Dr. Kidder, “ that many of them ought to 
sit at the feet of their own people to be instructed 


136 


BRAZIL. 


in the common doctrines of Christianity.” “ What 
report,” asked Dr. Kidder, “ shall I give to the 
religious world respecting Brazil ?” “ Say that we 

are in darkness, behind the age, and almost aban¬ 
doned.” “But that you wish for light?” “That 
we wish for nothing: we are hoping in God, the 
Father of lights.” 

The ignorance and sloth of the clergy seem almost 
incredible. Many priests are barely able to read the 
service. No one ever preaches sermons, except one 
or two metropolitan padres, who recount some of the 
wonderful deeds of St. George and the dragon, or of 
St. Dennis with his head, or of St. Priscilliana, on one 
or two feast days in the year. No such thing as 
parochial visitation is dreamt of. The confessional 
is no burden to the easy-going father, for his people 
are so well acquainted with his manner of life, that 
no one troubles himself to confess to a priest, with 
whom to compare himself is, to say the least, highly 
satisfactory. His year’s work consists of getting up 
a few festivals, saying a few masses, and officiating 
at funerals and marriages. 

W T orst of all, however, is the almost universal im¬ 
morality which prevails through the length and 
breadth of the land, among the clergy. Every year, 
the official reports of the minister of justice and the 
provincial presidents complain of this. It is so 
notorious as to strike natives and strangers almost 
equally. Dr. Gardner, the botanist, remarks, “ It is 
a hard thing to say, but I do it not without well 
considering the nature of the assertion, that the 
present clergy of Brazil are more debased and im¬ 
moral than any other class of men.” 

Whatever morality there is among the people is in 


FREE CIRCULATION OF SCRIPTURES. 


137 


spite of their pastors ; but the consequences of this 
state of things is most lamentable. 

It is the opinion of the keenest observers that a 
great change must soon come-; and every consider¬ 
ation seems to warrant the correctness of their views. 
A false religion, so that it is alive and operative, can 
and does in many lands keep out the true. But men 
cannot live on a dead faith. The hunger of the soul 
of man must he fed. It will feed on unwholesome 
food; hut food it must have : wind and ashes will 
not satisfy it. There is no instance in history of a 
religion, which had become a mere sham, an outward 
pretence with no activity, surviving for many years ; 
something strong, something moving, is sure to take 
its place. It is for Christians of all ranks to take 
care that what takes the place of the dead faith of 
Brazil shall he the gospel. There is nothing external 
to hinder: toleration is perfect: the people cry out 
for Bibles, whenever they hear of any being brought: 
the very priests offer to distribute them, saying, 
however, that they do not know how much good 
will come of it, the example the bishops and clergy 
set is so had. Kidder and Fletcher speak again and 
again of the delighted interest with which the people 
seized upon the word of God. On one occasion a 
Portuguese Bible was offered to a passenger on a 
steam-boat; all the passengers begged for copies, 
and in a few moments every Bible the American 
missionaries had was disposed of. “ Though I am a 
man forty-five years of age,” said a naval officer, who 
was returning to his family on leave, “ I have never 
before seen a Santa Biblia in a language I could 
understand.” 

It is no wonder that the people are weary and 


138 


BRAZIL. 


incredulous of their religion. Though godliness does 
not consist in forms of worship, still the assembling 
of ourselves together is God’s appointed means for 
sustaining the life of his church ; but the Brazilian 
worship reminds us more of what we hear of from 
China or Japan, than of any Christian devotion. 

The Sunday is hardly observed at all. In Rio the 
shops are open, and the people amuse themselves as 
they like. Military parades are commonly held on 
that day; and operas, theatres and balls are more 
crowded then than usual. Only a short time ago, it 
was the regular day for auctions. There has been a 
slight improvement in this matter, and in the closing 
of the great wholesale houses; but the profanation of 
the sabbath is still a disgraceful sight all through the 
empire. The emperor personally interfered the other 
day to put a stop to the playing of polkas and dances, 
on the Sunday, in the public squares. It hardly be¬ 
hoves us, unhappily, to be too severe on other nations, 
in this matter. 

“Preaching,” says Dr. Kidder, “is not known 
among the weekly services of the church, but I twice 
heard sermons delivered on special occasions. One 
discourse was at the annual festa of our Lady da 
Gloria, and was entirely eulogistic of her character. 
One of the most popular preachers had been procured, 
and he seemed quite conscious of having a theme 
that gave him unlimited scope. He dealt in nothing 
less than superlatives. ‘The glories of the Most 
Holy Virgin were not to be compared with those of 
creatures, but only with those of the Creator.’ ‘ She 
did everything which Christ did, but to die with 
him.’ ‘ Jesus Christ was independent of the Father, 
but not of his mother.’” 


PADRES AND. FESTAS. 


139 


Another eloquent padre achieved this piece of 
religious history: “ The magi from the east and the 
kings of the orient came on painful journeys from 
distant lands, and prostrating themselves at the feet 
of Nossa Senhora, offered her their crowns for the 
bestowment of her hand; but she rejected them all, 
and gave it to the obscure, the humble, but pious 
St. Joseph.” 

The “ padres ” of Rio catch the traveller’s eye at 
once, with their large hats and close-buttoned gowns, 
dressed, in the height of a tropical summer, as if 
for a Canadian winter. 

Their chief labour is the preparation of festivals, 
of which there are still a great number, though not 
so many as formerly. Every religious celebration is 
important in Brazil in proportion to the show it 
makes, and the amusements it provides. The church 
has been of late years shorn of much of its wealth 
and splendour, so that the brilliancy of its festivals 
depends to a great extent on the offerings of the 
faithful. To extract these, a variety of expedients is 
employed. 

The advertisements in the newspapers are sometimes 
very singular to Protestant ears. Here are one or 
two, concerning a festival in the church of Sta. Rita. 

“ This festa is to be celebrated with high mass and a sermon, at the expense 
of the devotees of the said Virgin, the most Holy Mother of grief, who are all 
invited by the board to add to the splendour of the occasion by their presence, 
since they will receive from the above-named Lady due reward.” 


Another, still more startling:— 


“ The Brotherhood of the Divine Holy Ghost of San Go 9 alo will hold the feast 
of the Holy Ghost, on the 31st inst., with all possible splendour. Devout persons 
are invited to attend, to give greater pomp to this act of religion. On the 1st 
proximo, there will be the feast of the most Holy Sacrament, with a procession in 


140 


BRAZIL. 


the evening, a Te Deum, and a sermon. On the 2nd, the feast of the patron of 
San Gonfalo, at 3 p.m., there will be brilliant horse-racing , after which a Te 
Deum and magnificent fireworks. 1 ' 



THE TADRE. 

One of the tradesmen’s advertisements, in connexion 
with this feast, is as strange as it is painful:— 

« Notice! to the illustrious preparers of the Festival of the Holy Spirit.—In 
the Rua dos Ourives, No. 78, may be found a beautiful assortment of Holy 
Ghosts, in gold, with glories, at eighty cents each ; smaller sizes, without glories, 
at forty cents ; silver Holy Ghosts, with glories, at six dollars and a half per 
hundred; ditto, without glories, three dollars and a half; Holy Ghosts of tin 
resembling silver, seventy-five cents per hundred ” 





































OBSERVANCES AT FESTIVALS. 


141 


All tlie faithful are duly informed of the coming 
feast on the day before, by showers of sky-rockets, 
which, indeed, form a most material part of the 
religious ceremony itself. 

To make sure of funds sufficient, nevertheless, 
begging processions are sent through the streets for 
a long time before the more important festivals. The 
collectors wear a red scarf, and wave flags. If any 
luckless person, in a fit of devotion, kisses these flags, 
he is pounced on for a donation. A negro band 
generally precedes them. In the provinces the 
company of ecclesiastical beggars sometimes reaches 
the number of fifty, all playing on violins, drums, 
and other instruments, and carrying big bags, hung 
on mules, to carry off contributions in kind, such as 
pigs, hens, and so forth. These are sometimes vowed 
from their youth, and are stated to be “St. John’s 
pigs,” or “the fowls of the Holy Ghost,” if the 
traveller wishes to buy them. 

St. George’s festival, he being the patron saint of 
Brazil as well as of England, is, perhaps, the grandest 
of all. It falls on Corpus Christi day, and is cele¬ 
brated with great pomp. The image of St. George is 
of wood, with a ruddy countenance and a flaxen wig. 
His seat on horseback is not good, for his long legs 
stick out, and he requires two men to hold him on. 
The emperor attends this procession, and walks 
bareheaded, carrying a candle, attended by all the 
cavaliers, or knights of the military orders, and the 
municipal council in full dress. 

“ Judas’ day,” or Hallelujah Saturday, is another 
favourite festival. It somewhat corresponds to our 
5th of November. The effigy of Judas is made up 
into all sorts of horrible hairy monsters, and is ac- 


m 


BRAZIL. 


companied by devils, dragons, and serpents. When 
he has been shown about enough, string is tied to him, 
and he is dragged along the streets, while the devout 
worshippers poke sharp sticks into him, stamp on him, 
throw stones at him, and otherwise maltreat him. 

“ Anjinhos,” or little angels, are popular ornaments 
in every procession. They are represented by little 
girls dressed out with wings, and led by priests, and 
are more than usually numerous in the series of shows 
which* take place during Passion-week. At that 
festival effigies of all the principal personages in the 
sacred history are carried along the streets; and the 
considerate priests take care to have a certain number 
black, to the great delight of the coloured worship¬ 
pers, who, whenever a black virgin or saint come 
in sight, cry out, “ There comes my kindred,” and 
prostrate themselves with the greatest veneration. 

This outward mark of respect is never exacted 
from Protestants, or indeed from any one disinclined 
to pay it. Even the mob never think of insulting 
those who do not bow as the host passes. If travellers 
are to be believed, this is very different from what 
is done in other Roman Catholic countries. 

Mr. Edwards, in his “Voyage up the River 
Amazon,” gives a brilliant description of one of 
these festivals he saw at Para, which seems to have 
made a deep impression on him. “ The day was a 
festival: the saint was popular: business was sus¬ 
pended : public offices were closed; and the whole 
city were preparing to do him honour. Such days 
in Para always end in processions ; and when, late in 
the afternoon, the crackling of rockets and the sounds 
of martial music proclaimed the procession already 
lormed, we walked to the Rua de Cadeira, the 


PROCESSIONS. 


143 


Broadway of Para, and took our stand among crowds 
of citizens, all apparently as much interested as our¬ 
selves in the coming events. The balconies above 
were filled with gaily dressed ladies, and bright eyes 
were impatient to pay their homage to the benignant 
saint, or to exact a homage, perhaps more sincere, 
from their own admirers below. 

“ Immediately succeeding a fine military band, 
walked a number of penitents, wearing crowns of 
thorns, and almost enshrouded in long black veils. 
It was evident enough that peccadilloes were not all 
confined to the white, for, below the veils, bared feet 
displayed as many hues as we had seen in the market¬ 
place. These penitents surrounded a tall banner, 
borne by one of their number, who staggered beneath 
its weight—a fair penance for many a hearty sin. 

“ Friars, with corded waists and shaven crowns, 
and priests in long black robes, came next: little 
angels followed, bright, happy things, and beautiful. 
Each wore upon her head a crown of flowers, and 
exquisite devices decked her white gauze dress. 
Wings of a butterfly, or some shorn Cupid, told how 
she came; she bore a wine-cup in her hand, and, as 
she stepped, tiny bells sent out low music. She was 
unaccustomed to our rough walks here, and, at her 
side, a seraph boy guided her faltering steps.” 

Then came a man, representing our Saviour, and 
carrying a cross, succeeded by the host. “ A number 
of other figures followed, and the line was closed by 
the troops. A few whites followed, curious as our¬ 
selves ; but the whole negro and Indian population 
were drawn along as a matter of course. Nearly all 
the negro women were profusely ornamented with 
gold, partly the fruit of their own savings, and often 


144 


BRAZIL. 


the riches of their lady-mistresses, who lend them 
willingly on such occasions. Some wore chains of 
gold beads, passing several times about the neck, 
and sustaining a heavy golden cross. All wore ear¬ 
rings ; and the elder women, both black and Indian, 
overtopped their heads by huge tortoise-shell combs. 
The Indian girls, who were in large numbers, were 
almost always beautiful, with regular features, fine 
forms, black lustrous eyes, and luxuriant locks that 
fell over their shoulders. Many women carried on 
their heads trays, covered with a neat towel, and 
well provided with temptations to errant coin. 

“ At intervals along the street were little build : 
ings, in which temporary altars were fitted up in all 
the glare and gaudiness of wax candles and tinsel. 
Every one raised his hat upon passing these, and the 
more devout knelt before them, depositing some coin 
at their departure. 

“ In the evening the churches were brilliantly 
lighted, and in the alcoves, before the images of the 
saint, knelt crowds of ladies, the elite of Para. At 
each altar priests officiated. 

“ Another procession, by torch-light, closed the 
exercises, and at last, wearied with sight-seeing, we 
wended our way homeward to the embrace of luxu¬ 
rious hammocks, that gently received us without the 
usual misadventure of the uninitiated and uncau¬ 
tioned.”* 

Though we may read, with a smile, of these pre¬ 
tences of worship, still we must not lose sight of the 
awful fact of which they are the signs. What idea 
can the Brazilians, generally, have of that God who 
is infinitely holy, and has declared that “ he will by 

* Edwards’ “ Voyage up the Amazon,” p. 8. 


DECAY OF ECCLESIASTICAL BUILDINGS. 145 

no means clear the guilty?” AVhat idea of the nature 
of the sin that brought the Saviour down to die, 
when they substitute for the one Mediator between 
God and man, the Virgin, saints, angels, and other 
intercessors; and for the reasonable worship that he 
requires, the idle shows we have described ? 

How many “ dark places ” there are in the earth ! 
How our hearts would sink did we not remember that 
He rules, whose eye sees further than ours, who holds 
the world in the hollow of his hand, and will surely, 
in his own good time, cause the knowledge of his 
glory to cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. 

The whole system of religion in Brazil is not what 
it was. Even outwardly it bears the marks of decay. 
The church there must have been wealthy and 
powerful once. On every hill in and out of the city 
of Bio stands some commanding church or convent. 
There are at least fifty churches and chapels in the 
town of Bio and its suburbs. Many have remained 
unfinished for nearly a century; and they will pro¬ 
bably never be completed under the present system. 
In the whole empire a new church is hardly ever 
built. The chapels of the convents are often larger 
and finer than the parish churches and cathedrals: 
that of the convent of San Bento is the grandest, the 
order of the Benedictines being the richest of all the 
fraternities : it is also the oldest, bearing an inscrip¬ 
tion to the effect that it was repaired in 1671. Never¬ 
theless it is in bad repair, and nearly deserted. 

The convent of St. Anthony, belonging to the men¬ 
dicant friars of that name, is another of considerable 
pretensions. This saint manages somehow to bear 
the commission, and draw the pay, of a full colonel 
in the Brazilian army. By the vows of their order 

L 


146 


BRAZIL, 


the friars can possess nothing; their vast convent, 
containing two chapels and a huge cloister, with 
hardly enough monks to keep them in order, accord¬ 
ingly belongs, ostensibly, to the pope. The shovel- 
hatted brothers that still remain are a comfortable 
looking order of men, who catch the eye of the tra¬ 
veller at once. 

There are several nunneries: that of St. Teresa 
occupies one of the most beautiful sites in Eio, but 
is a singularly repulsive-looking edifice, from its 
gloomy narrow windows, barred with iron and brist¬ 
ling with spikes. 

The convent of Nossa Senhora da Ajuda bears a 
worse reputation. It used to be employed for the 
purpose of locking up ladies whose husbands were 
going to travel. This terrible practice has been for¬ 
bidden by the present emperor. 



ENGLISH CHAPEL. 


There is one small English chapel in the Kua dos 




















IMAGE OF ST. ANTHONY. 


147 


Barbonos, built in 1823. The prevailing irreligion 
seems, however, to infect our countrymen resident in 
Brazil. The chapel is but poorly attended, though 
the great truths of the gospel are proclaimed 
there. 

Bahia is the only archiepiscopal city of the em¬ 
pire. It contains a very flourishing “ fabrica de 
imagens ” (image-factory), and the competition in 
saints and crucifixes is tolerably brisk. It is said 
that Bahia has more and. grander churches than any 
other Brazilian city, and that its friars and nuns ex¬ 
ceed in number those of all the rest of the empire. 
It is also the scene of the great Brazilian miracle. 
In 1595 (so the story is related), some Lutherans 
attacked. Argoim, a Portuguese settlement on the 
coast of Africa, and carried off an image of St. An¬ 
thony. Storm and pestilence followed the sacrilege, 
and, in revenge, the heretics hacked the unfortunate 
saint with their cutlasses, and threw him overboard. 
The vessel that had witnessed this crime was taken, 
and all the crew were sent as . prisoners to Bahia. 
When they got there the first thing they saw was the 
indestructible St. Anthony: he had swum thither 
before them. Incredulous science, under the direc¬ 
tions of Lieutenant Maury, shows how his saintness 
accomplished this feat,- in obedience to the laws of 
ocean currents; but the devout Brazilians have re¬ 
warded him, as before remarked, with military pro¬ 
motion for his swimming prowess. The original 
saint was so ugly and battered after his trying expe¬ 
riences, and the barnacles and worms had so im¬ 
paired his personal appearance, that a new one was 
made, who inherited the virtues of the old. After he 
was christened, he was enlisted in the Bahia regi- 

l 2 


148 


BRAZIL. 


ment, and in due course got his captaincy. The 
governor’s order for his promotion is curious. 

“ Wherefore, and because we now more than ever need the favours of the 
afore-mentioned saint, on account of the wars in Portugal, and of those which may 
yet happen in Bahia, the said chamber (the town-council) has besought me to 
assign to the glorious St. Anthony the rank and pay of a captain in the fortress, 
where he has hitherto received only the pay of a common soldier. 

“ In obedience to this request, and subject to the approval of the king, I there¬ 
fore assign to the glorious St. Anthony the rank of a captain in the 3rd fortress, 
and order that the solicitor of the Franciscan convent be authorized to draw, in 
his behalf, the amount of a captain's pay. (Signed) Rodrigo Da Costa.” 

"Bahia, July 16, 1705.” 

He lias since been promoted to bis colonelcy, and 
spends very little of his income himself. The ac¬ 
counts of his expenditure can be seen on application, 
and consist of bills for washing him and making his 
clothes. 

The Brazilians themselves, of course, laugh while 
they conform to such worship, and bow before such 
saints and images as these. Indeed, nearly all public 
worship is performed by women, who mumble over 
their beads in the intervals of the levities they carry 
on in church; and whose presence alone brings 
the sterner sex thither, except on festival days. 

Religion as a principle, operative on individual or 
social life, is, to all appearance, extinct in Brazil. 
The outward form of Romanism is there universally 
acknowledged and laughed at. The spirit and power 
of Christianity, it may be said, is unknown. It is 
quite sufficient, to excuse any error, to say, “ I am a 
bad Catholic.” The doctrines of the Romish church 
are outwardly assented to as matters of course; its 
practical injunctions are totally neglected. However 
bad a man is there, he cannot well manage to be worse 
than his priest; and the general prohibitions and 
directions that are irksome the bishcp abolishes by a 


LOW STATE OF RELIGION. 


149 


dispensation from time to time. Thus in Sao Paulo, 
the rules of abstinence from meat on Wednesday and 
Friday, and during Lent, had been suspended for six 
years by the bishop. Two or three years ago, the 
time being nearly out, the provincial assembly re¬ 
quested the bishop to renew the favour, accompany¬ 
ing the request with the cool assurance that it did not 
much matter, for whether he did or not, they should 
do as they chose. The frivolity of the religious 
services, the emptiness of the objects of superstition, 
and above all, the immorality of their teachers, have 
made the Brazilians tolerant, certainly. They have 
also turned nearly the whole nation into practical in¬ 
fidels : they are sick of the legends of the saints: 
they have not got the Bible ; while “ Yolney’s Ruins ” 
is the favourite fountain of doctrine at present. The 
state of Brazil as to religion, now, is that of Langue¬ 
doc and Provence in 1209, perhaps worse. The same 
freedom, wealth, politeness, immorality, and univer¬ 
sal toleration; the same indifference for religious 
doctrine ; the same contempt of the clergy. « Viler 
than a priest ;■ “I would as soon be a priestwere 
common sayings among the Albigenses, below the 
Loire. Such is the. universal feeling throughout 
Brazil so universal that many priests take every 
opportunity of practising other professions, or be¬ 
coming members of the legislature or the bar, or 
indeed doing anything that may efface or atone for 
their priestly character. This cannot last. It is 
clearly a transition state, and the subjects of Dorn 
Pedro will have a fairer field than those of Raymond 
of Toulouse. They are in no danger of a crusade. 
We may hope that the re-action from their present 
state of irreligion, which will certainly come, will be 


150 


BliAZIL. 


in the direction of a purer faith, not of deeper super- 
stifion, or of infidelity. 

Every indication seems, as we have said, to point 
to this. Sao Paulo is still, as ever, one of the lead¬ 
ing, if not the leading district of Brazil in intelli 
gence, inquiry, and restlessness. The Bibles that 
have been sent into Brazil here and there, have 
found their way to Sao Paulo with rapidity, and 
have already excited through the whole province, a 
longing for some more excellent way. 

Dr. Kidder in his journeys through the district 
called, as in. duty bound, on the padre of one town. 
This gentleman’s favourite work was Calmet’s French 
Bible, in twenty-six volumes. Dr. Kidder boldly 
told him that one of his objects in travelling was to 
distribute Bibles in the vulgar tongue. The priest 
approved of the scheme, and said he thought Catho¬ 
licism was nearly abandoned, vehemently denounc¬ 
ing the laws enforcing clerical celibacy. He affirmed 
that there was hardly anything of the spirit of reli¬ 
gion among either priests or people; that infidelity 
was rapidly spreading and eradicating the last re¬ 
mains of hereditary respect for religion. To his 
lament over his country, Dr. Kidder ventured to 
reply by asking what better remedy could be applied 
than the word of God. “ Nothing,” said the priest. 
“ How much good, then,” suggested the zealous 
doctor, “is it possible you yourself might do, both 
to your country and to immortal souls, by devoting 
yourself to the true work of an evangelist.” The 
padre assented, and hoped he should some day be 
engaged in it. He gladly undertook .to distribute 
any number of Bibles, and write an account of the 
manner of their disposal. He begged also for a large 


BIBLE DISTRIBUTION. 


151 


supply of Portuguese tracts. Dr. Kidder inquired 
how the ex-regent Feijo (then alive and resident in 
Sao Paulo) would regard such work. The priest said 
they would all rejoice. “ Then,” said the doctor, 
“ when we are engaged in this work, we can have 
the satisfaction to know that we are doing what the 
better part of your own clergy approve.” “ Cer¬ 
tainly,” he replied, “ you are doing what we ought 
to be doing ourselves.” 

Pardonably excited by this encouragement, Dr. 
Kidder spent a considerable time in Sao Paulo, in¬ 
quiring and distributing Bibles. One gentleman, a 
resident in another town, after, to a certain extent, 
vindicating the district of Sao Paulo, by saying that 
the priests of one church at least always wore their 
robes, were moral, enjoined the observance of the 
sacrament, and objected to theatres (which are some¬ 
times even attached to the church), admitted that 
there was very little respect for religion anywhere. 
To the proposal of a distribution of Bibles he gave 
the warmest assent, set about doing it immediately, 
created a great demand for them, and ordered a 
number of copies to be sent to him. A merchant, in 
a third village, offered his services as Bible distribu¬ 
tor. All concurred in the statement that no one 
would object to the distribution, and that the people 
would read them eagerly. 

The good missionary thought of a larger plan than 
the mere distribution of Bibles among the upper 
classes. No reading-books were in use in the na¬ 
tional schools. The Montpelier Catechism was the 
only such book ever seen. Might not the provincial 
government be induced to accept a gift of Testaments 
sufficient for the whole province ? 


152 


BRAZIL. 


He consulted the secretary and senior professor of 
the university, and, with his aid, the proposal was 
laid before various members of the assembly. Two 
priests, the bishop elect of Rio, and the two Andradas 
warmly praised the scheme, and promised their aid. 
The two aged statesmen were particularly earnest in 
their liberal expressions, and in their approbation of 
the wide distribution of the Holy Scriptures in the 
vulgar tongue. 

The subject was laid before the assembly, and Dr. 
Kidder received a verbal message saying that it had 
received the proposition with peculiar satisfaction, 
and had referred it to the two committees on ecclesias¬ 
tical affairs and public instruction. Subsequently 
he received this official reply :— 


“ To Mr. Kidder.—I inform you that the legislative assembly has received 
with especial satisfaction your offer of copies of the New Testament translated 
by the padre A. P. de Figueiredo, and that the legislature will enter into a de¬ 
liberation upon the subject, the result of which will be communicated to you. 
God preserve you I Miguel Eufrazio de Azevedo Marquez, Sec.'' 

Many others of the most influential persons in the 
province expressed their hearty approbation of the 
proposition. 

From various circumstances, it has never been 
carried out. But the same feelings still exist, and 
Sao Paulo may be taken as a type of the empire. 
The above details have been given to show how feeble 
is the hold that Roman Catholicism has on the Bra¬ 
zilian mind, and how ready the country is for the 
reception of a better knowledge and a purer faith. 

True religion and the practice of iniquity are in¬ 
consistent with each other. One reason, therefore, 
of the present religious darkness of Brazil is, doubt¬ 
less, the sin of slavery; and one ground of hope for 


SLAVE TRADE AND SLAVERY. 


153 


the country is the gradual amelioration in this respect 
that seems to he steadily going on. 

The slave-trade was prohibited by law in 1850. 
Queiroz, the minister of justice at the time, with the 
approbation of the whole country, caused severe mea¬ 
sures to be passed against it. And so willing were 
the Brazilians to have them enforced, that the im¬ 
portations rapidly diminished, and in 1853 there 
was not a single disembarkation. The slave-trade 
may be said to be now extinct in Brazil. 

As to the condition of the slaves themselves, the 
constitution in no way acknowledges colour as affect¬ 
ing civil rights, nor does the feeling of the people 
give it any weight as regards social standing. It is 
easier for a Brazilian slave to free himself, than it 
was in old times for an English villein; and, once 
free, there is no hinderance, either legal or social, 
to prevent him from attaining any position in the 
state. They use their advantages; any slave can 
go before a magistrate, have his price fixed and pur¬ 
chase himself. Some of the most eminent men in the 
country are Africans. The most assiduous students 
in the great national library are blacks and mulat- 
toes. They distinguish themselves in the medical, 
legal, and theological schools. 

Mr. Edwards and his brother had to obtain at Para, 
as all strangers have, a licence of residence. “ It was 
furnished,” he says, “ gratuitously. The officer was 
one of the many examples that we met with of the dis¬ 
regard paid to colour in public or private life, through¬ 
out the country. He is considered the second officer 
of the provincial government, and, like the president, 
receives his appointment directly from Bio Janeiro.”* 

* Edwards’ “ Voyage up the Amazon,” p. 18. 


154 


BRAZIL. 


“ Brazilian slavery,” he says again, “ is, as it is, 
little more than slavery in name. Prejudice against 
colour is scarcely known, and no white thinks less 
of Jbis wife because her ancestors came from over the 
water. Half the officers of the government, and of 
the army, are of mingled blood; and padres, doctors, 
and lawyers of the intensest hue are none the less 
esteemed. The educated blacks are just as talented, 
and just as gentlemanly, as the whites; and in re¬ 
peated instances we have received favours from them 
which we were happy to acknowledge. . . The uni¬ 
versally kind relation between master and slaves in 
Brazil, robs slavery of its horrors, and changes it 
into a system of mutual dependence and good-will.” 

It is probable that in a few more years slavery 
itself will have ceased to exist in Brazil. There is 
none of that vile and insolent contempt towards ne¬ 
groes which is found even in the free states of 
America. Mr. Fletcher gives a striking instance of 
the difference between his own enlightened country 
and others. In 1849, at a soiree at M. de Tocque- 
ville’s (then French minister for foreign affairs), in 
Paris, he met a clergyman from America, apparently 
a Brazilian, who excited great admiration and re¬ 
spect in the brilliant capital by his talents and cha¬ 
racter. A European university of high repute con¬ 
ferred on him the degree of doctor of divinity. He 
visited England, where he was received with the 
same honour and interest. In 1856, he was turned 
out of a New York railway omnibus by the conductor, 
as unfit to sit with the white citizens, because he 
was of negro origin. There appears to be nothing of 
this feeling in Brazil : it is this, as much perhaps as 
the interests of the southern planters, that keeps 


COFFEE CARRIERS. 


155 


slavery alive in the United States; and we may almost 
doubt the sincerity of philanthropists, who, loudly 
professing their regard for the rights of humanity, 
whether black or white, shudder at the presence or 
the touch of a man almost as white as themselves, 
because his grandfather or grandmother was black. 

The slaves themselves in Brazil are generally of a 
superior class to those in North America. There is 
one rather celebrated race, the coffee-carriers of Rio. 



They usually work in gangs of from ten to twenty : 
they are generally the most powerful men that can 
be found: indeed the labour soon wears them out, 
and would speedily destroy men of feebler frames. 
Great part of the porterage of Rio is performed by 
them. Under their captain, the largest and strongest 
man among them, a troop will hoist, each of them, a 
bag of coffee weighing 160 pounds on his head, and, 




156 


BRAZIL, 


unincumbered by any clothing other than a pair of 
short trowsers, start off at a trot that soon becomes a 
rapid run. One hand steadies the load, and the other 
carries and shakes a sort of child’s rattle. In this 
manner, shouting some nasal ditty in an unknown 
tongue, they plunge round the corners and up the 
streets, to the astonishment and sometimes discompo¬ 
sure of the stranger, who is naturally startled at 
being charged by a dozen half-naked black giants, 
roaring at the top of their voices. Any one who will 
try to stead} r a half-hundred weight on his head for 
one minute, may judge what labour these negroes go 
through, in carrying all day long nearly three times 
the weight at a sharp run. 

The noise they made was so great, that a few 
years ago an attempt was made to stop them. They 
were forbidden to sing. The immediate result was 
that they did no work—not in the way of strike, but 
of positive depression, and inability to go on without 
the old chant; just as a dray-horse will stop if the 
bells are taken off his collar, or a file of camels lie 
down, and be beaten to death rather than rise, if the 
jingling iron pot is taken off the leader’s neck. The 
prohibition was perforce repealed, and the work and 
the noise began again, and go on to this day. 

The coffee-carriers and most of the half indepen¬ 
dent open-air slaves in Brazil—those who pay a 
sort of “ obrok ” (as a Russian serf would call it) to 
their masters in lieu of their personal service—are of 
the Mina tribe, from the coast of Benin. They are a 
singularly powerful and independent race. The 
coffee-carriers have a system of subscribing to buy 
the freedom of their best man. Mr. Fletcher tells of 
a huge black porter in Rio, who was called “the 


4 


MINAS NEGROES. .15? 

prince,” being of royal race in his own land. His 
subjects in Eio bought his freedom once, and he 
returned to Africa. Unmindful of his past experi¬ 
ence, he engaged in war, was again captured, and 
again sold and shipped to Rio, where he is now, a 
porter as before, and in no way depressed by the 
remembrance of his twice-lost throne. This man 
carried a case belonging to a friend of Mr. Fletcher’s 
two miles and a half on his head. In Philadelphia, 
he says, four American negroes had been unable to 
manage it, until half emptied. 

Mr. Fletcher thinks that the whole of the Brazilian 
negroes are of a superior race to the Americans. The 
Minas, particularly, are almost useless as house-ser¬ 
vants, and will not, or cannot, live except in the open 
air. They are all Mohammedans, and speak a lan¬ 
guage unknown to the Brazilians, or even the other 
negroes. They are also far more turbulent and im¬ 
patient than the common negro. In 1858, the dis¬ 
turbances in Bahia were partly caused, and rendered 
tenfold more sanguinary, by the Mohammedan Minas, 
who abound in that city. They buy their freedom in 
great numbers occasionally. In 1851, sixty of them 
purchased themselves of their masters, and then 
sailed in a body for Benin, paying down 4000 dollars 
passage money. 

This independent and energetic spirit once dis¬ 
played itself in an alarming and dangerous way. In 
the province of Pernambuco, hidden away in a wilder¬ 
ness of jungle and palm-trees, a number of fugitive 
slaves had collected. Every runaway from all 
quarters of the empire travelled thither; and their 
numbers soon became sufficient to be a protection to 
themselves, and dangerous to their former masters. 


158 


BRAZIL. 


A regular military and priestly government was set 
up, and the community was known at last by the 
respectable name of the republic of Palmares. The 
forces of this negro state were well organized, and it 
undertook predatory excursions, that took more and 
more of the form of regular warfare, against the 
Portuguese inhabitants. Large numbers of cattle, and 
quantities of treasure were carried off; the gold- 
caravans were waylaid; even towns were attacked, 
and the negroes took the wives and daughters of their 
enemies off into their almost impregnable forest 
strongholds, and exacted heavy ransoms for them. 
The Portuguese authorities of the neighbourhood 
were altogether unable to deal with this servile war, 
and the slaves had a public spirit, and an amount of 
good sense, that rendered them still more formidable. 
They built villages and even large towns, and for 
sixty years held their own so far as actually to esta¬ 
blish a regular trade with some of the colonies. But 
the audacity of the black republicans of Palmares at 
last roused the central authority; regular war was 
declared, and raged for months. Nothing but the 
advantage which the possession of artillery gave them 
enabled the Portuguese to triumph. The little state 
fought energetically, and with cool desperation ; the 
leader and his most resolute followers, when all was 
lost, retired to the summit of a precipice, and threw 
themselves down. 

Deeper servitude than ever was the portion of the 
survivors. A fifth of the males were selected as 
slaves for the crown; the rest were divided anions: 
the conquerors as booty. The women and children 
were sold in Pernambuco, and the republic of Pal¬ 
mares was extinguished. 


SLAVE-HOLDERS. 


159 


As is tlie case, it is believed, in all slave countries, 
many of the negroes, excepting always the Moham¬ 
medans, retain many of their pagan superstitions and 
idolatries, though nominally Christians. Their burial 
rites are pagan, and many of the pedlars and other 
trades carry about the universal fetish to drive away 
the evil eye. There is among them a singular 
secret society, doubtless pagan in its origin, in which 
the test of eminence is the number of lives taken. 
They call themselves capoeiros , and at night will rush 
out and rip up any persons they meet. There is 
method in their madness, however, for they generally 
avoid attacking white people; and to this it is pro¬ 
bably owing, that it is not until recently that they 
have been curbed by the authorities; but they are 
not nearly so numerous now as formerly. 

It is not Brazilians only who hold slaves; French 
and Germans buy them; and also Englishmen, re¬ 
gardless of Lord Brougham’s Act, which renders it 
criminal for an Englishman to hold slaves, even in a 
foreign country, keep large numbers. The great 
English Mining Company of St. Joao do Bey, it is 
said, owns about 800, and hires 1000 more. 

On the whole, the condition of the slaves that still 
exist in Brazil is better than that of the bondsmen in 
perhaps any other country. A southern state lady, the 
wife of the United States consul in Bio, a few years 
ago, used to say that “ the very paradise of negroes 
was Brazil, for they had a warm climate, and, if they 
chose, could rise in the world in a way altogether 
impossible in the United States.” 

The Brazilians seem to be mild and just masters 
and mistresses on the whole, though some of the 
flagrant evils of slavery are still only too apparent to 


160 


BRAZIL. 


the English traveller. There yet exist those disgraces 
of the southern states, the “ Casas do Correccao,” or 
public punishment houses, where the refractory slaves 
are sent to receive the floggings which their masters 
and mistresses are too delicate or humane to inflict 
themselves. The commonest punishments, however, 
are the log, or iron collar, for runaways, and for drunk¬ 
ards and dirt-eaters, the tin mask. 



THE LOG, IRON-COLLAR, AND TIN MASK. 


Madame Pfeiffer’s* impressions of Brazilian slavery 
may be interesting, though written nearly thirteen 
years ago. 

“ It was not,” she writes, “ until I had been here 
several weeks that .1 became somewhat accustomed 
to the appearance of negroes and mulattoes. I then 

* “ A Woman's Journey round the World.” 



MADAME PFEIFFER ON BRAZILIAN SLAVERY. 161 

discovered many very pretty figures among the 
young negresses. 

“ In the Brazils, every kind of dirty or hard work, 
whether indoors or out, is performed by the blacks, 
who here, in fact, replace the lower classes. Many, 
however, learn trades, and frequently are to be com¬ 
pared to the most skilful Europeans. I have seen 
blacks in the most elegant workshops, making wear¬ 
ing apparel, shoes, tapestry, gold or silver articles; 
and met many a nattily dressed negro maiden work¬ 
ing at the finest ladies’ dresses, or the most delicate 
embroidery. I often thought I must be dreaming 
when I beheld these poor creatures, whom I had 
pictured to myself as roaming free through their 
forests, exercising such occupations in shops and 
rooms. Yet they do not appear to feel it so much as 
might be supposed; they were always merry and 
joking over their work. 

“ Among the so-called educated classes of the 
place, there are many who, in spite of all the proofs 
of mechanical skill, as well as general intelligence 
which the blacks often display, persist in asserting 
that they are so far inferior to the whites in mental 
power, that they can only be looked upon as a link 
between the monkey tribe and the human race. I 
allow that they are somewhat behind the wdiites in 
intellectual culture; but I believe that this is not 
because they are deficient in understanding, but 
because their education is totally neglected. No 
schools are erected for them, no instruction given 
them—in a word, not the least thing is done to 
develop the capabilities of their minds. As was the 
case in old despotic countries, their minds are pur¬ 
posely kept enchained ; for were they once to awake 

M 



162 


BRAZIL. 


from their present condition, the consequences to the 
whites might he fearful. They are four times as 
numerous as the latter; and if they ever become 
conscious of their superiority, the whites might pro¬ 
bably be placed in the position which the unhappy 
blacks have hitherto occupied. 

“ Although the number of slaves in Brazil is very 
great, there is nowhere such a thing as a slave- 
market. The importation of them is publicly 
prohibited, yet thousands are smuggled in every 
year, and disposed of in some underhand manner 
which every one knows, and every one employs.”* 
“It is true that English ships are constantly 
cruising off the coasts of Brazil and Africa ; but even 
if a slaver happen to fall into their hands, the 
poor blacks, I was told, are no more free than if they 
had come to the Brazils. They are all transported 
to the English colonies, where at the end of ten years 
they are supposed to be set at liberty; but during 
this period, their owners allow the greater number 
to die—of course in the returns only—and the poor 
slaves remain slaves still: but I repeat that I only 
know this from hearsay, f 

“ After all, slaves are far from being as badly off 
as many Europeans imagine. In the Brazils they 
are generally pretty well treated; they are not over¬ 
worked ; their food is good and nutritious ; and the 
punishments are neither particularly frequent nor 
heavy. The crime of running away is the only 
one that, is visited with great rigour. Besides a 
severe beating, they have fetters placed round their 
neck and feet: these they have to wear for a consider- 


* This, It must be remembered, .was written many years ago. 
+ The authoress was certainly misinformed on this point. 


madame pfeifper’s account. 


163 


able period. Another manner of punishment consists 
in making them wear a tin mask, which is fastened 
with a lock behind. This is the mode of punishment 
adopted for those who drink, or are in the habit of eat¬ 
ing earth or lime. During my stay in the Brazils, 
I only saw one negro who had got on a mask of this 
description. I very much doubt whether, on the 
whole, the lot of these slaves is not less wretched 
than that of the peasants of Russia, Poland, or Egypt, 
who are not called slaves. 

“ I was one day very much amused at being asked 
to stand godmother to a negro, which I did, though 
I was not present at either baptism or confirmation. 
There is a certain custom here, that when a slave has 
done anything for which he expects to be punished, 
he endeavours to fly to some friend of his owner, and 
obtain a note, asking for a remission of his punish¬ 
ment. The writer of such a note has the title of god¬ 
father bestowed on him, and it would be accounted 
an act of the greatest impoliteness not to grant the 
godfather’s request. In this way, I myself was for¬ 
tunate enough to save a slave from punishment.” 

Of the slaves in the country, Madame Pfeiffer 
writes— 

“ All work ceases at sunset, when the negroes are 
drawn up in front of their master’s house for the pur¬ 
pose of being counted, and then, after a short prayer, 
have their supper, consisting of boiled beans, bacon, 
came secca (dried meat), and manioc flour, handed 
out to them. At sunrise they again assemble, are 
once more counted, and, after prayers and breakfast, 
go to work. 

“ I had an opportunity of convincing myself in 
this, as well as in many other fazendas (plantations), 

m 2 


164 


BRAZIL. 


vendas (inns), and private houses, that the slaves are 
by far not so harshly treated as we Europeans ima¬ 
gine. They are not overworked, perform all their 
duties very leisurely, and are well kept. Their 
children are frequently the playmates of their 
master’s children, and they knock each other about 
as if they were all equal. There may be cases in 
which certain slaves are cruelly and undeservedly 
punished : but do not the like instances of injustice 
occur in Europe also ? 

“ I am certainly very much opposed to slavery, 
and should greet its abolition with the greatest de¬ 
light ; but, despite this, I again affirm that the negro 
slave enjoys, under the protection of the law, a better 
lot than the free fellah of Egypt, or many peasants in 
Europe, who still groan under the right of soccage. 
The principal reason of the better lot of the slave 
compared with that of the miserable peasant, in the 
case in point, may perhaps partly be, that the pur¬ 
chase and keep of the one is expensive, while the 
other costs nothing. 

“ I once witnessed the christening of a negro. The 
person who was to be christened was a young negro 
of fifteen, who stood with his mother at the church- 
door. As the priest entered the church to perform 
mass, he christened him in passing by, without much 
ceremony or solemnity, and even without sponsors. 
The boy, too, seemed to be as little touched by the 
whole affair as a new-born infant. I do not believe 
that either he or his mother had the least idea of the 
importance of the rite.” 

So far Madame Pfeiffer. 

At the present time, in many parts of the country, 
slaves are most unwilling to buy their freedom when 


UNWILLINGNESS TO BE FREE. 


165 


they can, or even to receive it, if offered. As to 
buying it, natural indolence, and unwillingness to 
endure the requisite self-denial, may have a good 
deal to do with it. But dread of enlistment, and a 
conviction that their easy hereditary servitude suits 
them better than the cares and responsibilities of 
liberty, make many of them shy of independence. 
“Free negroes,” writes Mr. Edwards, “ are very apt 
to be caught in the same trap (that of compulsory 
enlistment in the army); and then negroes and 
Indians together spend their leisure hours off drill 
in the lock-up, until, between the principles of 
honour therein imbibed, and the ardour of military 
glory excited, they can be considered trustworthy 
and suffered to go at large. Most free negroes avoid 
this career of greatness by nominally still belonging 
to their old master, or some other willing protector.”* 
The same writer gives an instance of the other in¬ 
centive to remaining in slavery. “ Larry was a 
general favourite with visitors, and had showed his 
appreciation of their favour by picking up a few 
words of English. His province was filling and 
marking the sacks of rice; and being paid a price for 
all above a certain number, he earned regularly be¬ 
tween two and three dollars a week. We thought, of 
course, that Larry was in a fair way to be a free 
man, and, in our innocence, suggested that he was 
laying up money to buy his papers: but he dispersed 
all such notions by the sententious reply, “ I do not 
buy my freedom, because I am not a fool.” He had 
a good master, he had a wife, and he did not have 
care or trouble. Thus he was contented. The aspi¬ 
rations of another of these blacks were more exalted ; 

* Edwards’ “ Voyage up the Amazon,” p. 20. 


166 


BRAZIL. 


for one day, as he sat ruminating upon air-castles, 
his soul fired perhaps with the glorious ‘ excelsior,’ 
he burst out with, ‘ I wish I was a rich man; 1 
would eat nothing but fresh fish.’ ” (p. 40.) 

Mr. Edwards seems to have been much struck with 
the mildness of the servitude among the northern 
planters, very different from that among the proprie¬ 
tors in the southern states of his own country. Of 
one Senhor Godinho, he says, “ There were about 
100 slaves employed upon the plantation, and they 
seemed to look up to the senhor with a pride and 
affection which he fully reciprocated. He told us 
that for months together he was not obliged to punish 
one of them. They all had ways of earning money 
for themselves, and upon holidays or other times re¬ 
ceived regular wages for extra labour. There was a 
novel custom here, usual upon these retired planta¬ 
tions . soon after sunset all the house-servants and 
the children of the estate came in form to ask the 
senhor’s blessing, which was bestowed by the motion 
of the cross, and some little phrase.” (p. 72.) Mr. 
i letcher also mentions having seen the same custom 
both among slaves and free servants in the south. 
One humorous old planter with whom Mr. Edwards 
made great friendship generally employed as a bene¬ 
diction a prayer that they might be made white. 

Partly from the increasing value of slaves as their 
number lessens, and partly from the increasing good 
sense and right feeling of the people, their treatment 
is ameliorating yearly. And it seems generally ad¬ 
mitted that the “ peculiar institution ” is doomed in 
Brazil, and cannot exist many years longer. 

It is a singular fact that exactly as the slave-trade 
lessened, immigration increased, and as soon as it was 


DECLENSION OF SLAVERY. 


167 


entirely put an end to, the present rapid colonization 
and increase of the white population began, and has 
steadily continued. 

If to moral consideration and common sense is 
added the stimulus of extended vital religion, we 
may reasonably hope that, before long, Brazil will 
have seen the last of this crying sin, which, in its 
mildest form is “ a disgrace to any people.” 


( 168 ) 


CHAPTER VI. 

SOCIAL CONDITION OF BRAZIL—MANNERS, CUSTOMS, ETC. 

Domestic life—Proprieties—Houses—Daily life of a Brazilian lady—Salutations 
—Formality—Domestic slaves—Children—Sweetmeats—The Brazilian young 
lady—Universal sobriety—Markets—Meals—The Mate—Amusements The 
Brazilian young gentleman—Collegios—Education and academies Rank and 
titles—The chambers—Politics — Literature — The Portuguese language — 
Newspapers—The national library, societies, and institutions—Administration 
of justice—Medicine—Peculiar diseases — Beggars — Foundling hospitals 
Madame Pfeiffer's view of Brazilian society—The provinces—Pernambuco— 
The Sertanigos—The Sebastianists—Hostility between the Brazilians and the 
Portuguese—Music—Negro melodies—Fertility and advantages of Brazil. 


The family and social life of Brazil are pleasanter 
subjects of contemplation, than its religious state. 
Brazilians are for the most part thoroughly family- 
folk, domestic and respectable. The home is generally 
a comfortable one. Travellers who are fortunate 
enough to get the entree of really good Brazilian 
houses, are loud in the praises of the real domestic 
comfort, hospitable frankness, and gentle good man 
ners they find there. 

Outwardly, however, the house, at least in the 
city, is not very attractive. The ground-floor is 
occupied by the wash-house and stable, closed by 
large gates, locked and barred like the door of a 
prison, which are nevertheless the only entrance. 
The walls are built, in a rough way, of flints and 
stones imbedded in mortar, smoothed on the out¬ 
side : they are often of great thickness. On the first 
floor is the kitchen, and next door to it the par- 




THE GLORIA HILL, FROM THE PASSEIO PUBLICO. 











































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































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HABITS AND MANNERS. 


171 


lour, and the dining-room. Over the gates is the 
great feature of the Brazilian mansion, the balcony. 
From this, in most houses in Rio, owing to the 
varied nature of the ground on which the city stands, 
beautiful views of the harbour and the singular 
mountains that skirt it can be obtained. There the 
ladies of the family enjoy the fresh air, gossip with 
their neighbours on the adjoining houses, and peep 
over into the street for quitandeiras, or fruit-women, 
and that delight of a Brazilian lady’s life—the pedlar. 

When you make a call, you find no knocker or bell; 
you walk in at the great gate, stand at the bottom 
of the stairs, and clap your hands. When you have 
clapped loudly and long enough, a slave puts her 
head over the balusters, and cries, Quern he ? (who’s 
there ?) Then you are shown up. 

If you see friends on their balcony, it is etiquette 
not only to remove the hat (which a Brazilian always 
does on every reasonable occasion), but you must 
beckon with your fingers. There is a great deal of 
bowing and gesticulation, among the city folk especi¬ 
ally. “Politeness,” says Mr. Edwards, “is one of 
the cardinal virtues in Brazil; and high or low, 
whites, blacks, or Indians, are equally under its influ¬ 
ence. One never passes another without a touch of 
the hat and a salutation, either good morning, or 
afternoon; or, more likely still, ‘viva senhor,’ 
‘ long life, sir;’ and frequently when we have been 
rambling in the fields, a passing stranger has called 
out to us a greeting from a distance that might readily 
have excused the formality. An affirmative, or a 
negative, even between two negroes, is ‘ si senhor,’ 
or ‘nao senhor.’ Two acquaintances, who may 
meet the next hour, part with 1 ate logo,’ or, ‘ until 


172 


BRAZIL. 


soon‘ate manhaa,’ ‘ until to-morrow.’ When 
friends meet, after an absence, they rush into each 
other’s arms ; and a parting is often with tears. ‘ Passa 
bem, se Deos queira,’ ‘ may you go happily, God 
willing,’ is the last salutation to even a transient 
visitor as he pushes from the shore; and very often 
one discovers that the unostentatious kindness of his 
entertainer has preceded him even into the boat. 

“ Brazilian hospitality,” he says, after his experi¬ 
ence in the northern provinces, “ is not hospitality 
only in name; it is the outflowing of a noble and 
generous warm-heartedness that would redeem a 
thousand failings.” 

There is considerable formality attending a morn¬ 
ing call, whatever the object. However richly the 
room may be otherwise furnished, there is always a 
cane-bottomed sofa at one end of the parlour, and two 
rows of chairs extending from each end into the 
middle of the room. The ladies always sit on the 
sofa. The gentlemen are always expected to occupy 
those chairs. If the visit be one of condolence for 
death, one precedent is always followed. The family 
have already preserved among themselves a profound 
silence for eight days. The visitor mnst not expect 
it to be broken for him. He must simply enter, say¬ 
ing, “ Will you permit me to offer my condolence for 
the loss you have sustained.” Perfect silence is 
maintained; and, after a certain time, the visitor 
withdraws. 

This formality is no sign of heartlessness. The 
family feeling is almost as strong among the Bra¬ 
zilians, as among those home-loving people, the 
Germans. All family fete-days and birthdays are 
most religiously and joyfully observed. Whatever 


FAMILIES AND DWELLINGS. 


173 


the faults of Brazilian morality may be, and they are 
neither few nor small, they are an affectionate and 
thoroughly domestic race. Their families are so 
large, and remain together so long, that this is 
natural: it is not uncommon to find ten, twelve, or 
fifteen children in one household. Mr. Fletcher was 
introduced to a lady who was the mother of twenty- 
four. These would be large numbers even in England 
or Germany, and speak of prosperity and peace, both 
political and domestic. 

The gloomy old city houses are not the type of all 
Brazilian dwellings; the villas and suburban man¬ 
sions, and the houses in the more modern provincial 
towns, are singularly beautiful both in their style of 
architecture, and the lovely tropical flowers, fruits, 
and foliage in which they are embosomed. 

The middle-class Brazilian’s first effort, (and in 
the young, prosperous, and thinly peopled country it 
is very generally, and very early, successful,) is to 
make his nest comfortable and creditable for the rest 
of his life. 

Most tolerably wealthy families have a swarm of 
negroes dependent on them, either free or slaves. 
The management and inspection of these is the one 
burden of a Brazilian lady’s life, and it is not a light 
one. A marchioness told Mr. Fletcher, with much 
earnestness, that her slaves would be the death of 
her. Another inquired if any one knew of any one 
else who had any washing to give out, for she had 
nine lazy servants at home who had nothing to do. 
“ We make it a rule,” she piteously said, “ not to sell 
our slaves, and they are the torment of my life, for I 
cannot find enough work to keep them out of idleness 
and mischief.” 


174 


BRAZIL. 


One evil of this is, that no Brazilian lady nurses her 
own children : she gives them to one of her negresses; 
and as they grow up the young gentlemen and ladies 
are such tyrants, that all domestic control is at an end. 
The children of a Fluminensian household are pretty 
constantly confined to distant regions of the house, 
at least while visitors are present. They are sharp, 
entertaining little folk, though, and mature far more 
rapidly than our sober hoys and girls. French and 
Italian they pick up almost instinctively. Every one, 
from the emperor downwards, speaks these languages. 
Volatile, passionate, and imperious as they are, the 
general character of Brazilian children is amiable 
and intelligent. That moody, brooding temperament, 
generally arising in some degree from ill health, that 
is not uncommon among us, seldom appears in 
southern children, and least of all in the Brazilians. 
Their tempers ought to be all ruined, however, and 
their health and happiness too, on the stem English 
theory of the unmitigated evils of indulgence: so 
ought their digestions, if our ideas on the subject of 
sweetmeats be correct. The old black quitandeira 
comes round the corner of the street, with her black 
baby sitting behind her, supported by one hand, while 
the other maintains the equilibrium of her basket on 
her head. Therein are usually contained oranges, 
guavas, maracujas or passion-flower pods (a most 
delicious fruit, introduced occasionally in England, 
but unaccountably neglected), mangoes, doces or 
sugar-plums, sugar-cane and so forth. As she comes 
among the wealthy houses, she begins her song:— 


“ Cry, meninas. Cry, meninos. 

Papa has plenty of money; 

Come buy, ninha, ninha, come buy!” 


BRAZILIAN YOUNG LADY. 


175 


This artful ditty is invariably successful; the 
meninas and meninos (little girls and little boys) 
do ciy, and what they cry for they always get. Papa’s 
heart and pocket are both reached by the delicate 
compliment of the old lady’s second line ; and down 
stairs, and through the big gates, from every house, 
come the meninos and meninas, head over heels, with 
an anxious black nurse following, to buy sweets. 
But alas! the results recommend the English method: 
no profession is so prosperous in Rio as the dentist’s. 

The menina’s future life (to take her before her 
brother) is not a very lively prospect to English 
fancies. She learns to play the piano, and well; to 
sing also, in first-rate style. She acquires the Bra¬ 
zilian lady’s tone of voice—a high scream, from scold¬ 
ing her mother’s black maids and footmen. At nine 
or ten, she is sent to some fashionable school, kept 
by some foreigner, and at thirteen or fourteen taken 
home with her education finished. For a year or 
two, she stores her mind with the valuable and puri¬ 
fying works of Balzac, Eugene Sue, Dumas, George 
Sand, and the feuilletons, or novel-sheets of the news¬ 
papers, and gossips and lounges away the time that 
is not employed in her musical or literary labour. 
If at all of the superior ranks of society, she is spared 
the trouble and responsibility of deciding on her 
future partner for life. Some day the father walks 
into the drawing-room, accompanied by a stranger 
gentleman, elderly or otherwise. “ Minha filha,” he 
remarks, “ this is your future husband.” The young 
lady’s mind is at the same time set at ease as regards 
the dowry the gentleman is prepared to pay for her ; 
and in due time she obediently becomes a happy 
wife. Brazilians of the superior classes do not deal 


176 


BKAZIL. 


in sentiment, and the popular expression is, “ So-and- 
so’s daughter will cost so many contos.” “ Happy 
fellow!” says a man to his friend, “that is a very 
superior article you have bought.” 

To and from mass is the show promenade of the 
Brazilian young lady. Followed by her portly mother, 
and escorted by father or uncle, she and her sisters 
go through the streets, dressed, as if for the evening, 
in black silk, with neck and arms bare, and appa¬ 
rently unaffected by the vertical rays of a tropical 
sun, for she never uses a parasol. 

The young matron then proceeds to walk in the 
ways of her mother : she never takes any exercise to 
speak of; and her slender form rapidly fills out to 
the ample proportions which are common. She lives 
temperately, as does also her husband. Drunkenness 
is almost unknown among native Brazilians, who 
have any shred of respectability left. A lady never 
touches wine, except when a health is drunk on some 
state occasion, and then she only tastes it. The bit¬ 
terest reproach in Brazil is, “ Esta bebado ” (he is 
intoxicated). Our national character does not stand 
high in this respect there. The expression for a 
dram is, “ Uma baieta Tnglez ” (an English overcoat), 
and in the northern provinces it is said of a drunkard, 
“ Elle esta bem Inglez ” (he is very English). 

Her days are somewhat monotonous. Every one 
rises at dawn, and by nine all the household work is 
over ; then she takes to the balcony to gossip, and 
look into the street. The milkman, driving round 
his cows, is one source of excitement, considering the 
acuteness required to prevent him from diluting the 
daily portion. Then the quitandeira, before-men¬ 
tioned, pays her visit. Next comes the delight of the 


HOME-SHOPPING. 


177 


lady’s heart, the pedlar. The sound of his covado 
(measuring-stick), as he uses it for a walking-cane, 
is hailed with rapture; one or more sturdy negroes 
follow him with the tin cases of silks and laces on 
their heads. He walks in unannounced, sure of a 
welcome: the negroes deposit the boxes, and depart 
to their brethren below. And then begins the de 
lightful and polite battle between the sharp Italian 
or Portuguese, anxious to sell, and the lady and her 
daughters, anxious but afraid to buy. She never goes 
shopping, but has the luxury brought to her own 
doors. Her wardrobe is almost entirely purchased at 
home. When the pedlar is not at hand, or (wh\ch is 
rarely the case) cannot suit her, she sends a black to 
a shop, and desires an assortment of goods to be sent 
to choose from. 

The more economical matrons have lace and em¬ 
broidery made at home. Some families have negresses 
who make such beautiful lace, and crivo , a particular 
kind of embroidery (achieved by pulling out threads 
in fine linen, and darning, we believe), that their 
owners make a considerable profit by them. 

Edwards noticed this in Para :—“ Everywhere are 
seen about the streets young women, blacks or 
Indians, bearing upon their heads large trays of 
doces, or sweetmeats and cakes, for sale. These 
things are made by their mistresses, and are thus 
marketed. Nor do the first ladies of the city think 
it beneath their dignity thus to traffic, and we heard 
of some notable examples where- the money received 
for the doces had accumulated to independent for¬ 
tunes.”* 

The rest of the day is taken up with scolding and 

* Voyage up the Amazon, p. 22. 

N 


178 


BRAZIL. 



None but those of their own colour can escape their 
hands uncheated; and even they have a hard task, 
according to their own account, and one that takes 


looking after her negroes. The skeleton in her cup¬ 
board is not unfrequently the trouble the slaves give 
her, who are sent to market. The market in the 
Palace Square at Rio is a beautiful sight. And the 
black cooks and housemaids seem to find it a pleasant 
place, from the time they spend there. The fish, 
vegetables, and fruits make a goodly show. The 
great competition is for the finer sorts of the first. 
One especially is esteemed, the garopa ; fifty milreis, 
or about twenty-five dollars, are given for these, if fine. 
The varieties of fruit are almost endless, as are also 
the wiles of the stately Mina negresses who sell them. 





WATER-CARRYING. 


179 


a long time in performing. The process is not 
shortened by the necessity the bargaining parties are 
under of recruiting their exhausted energies from 
time to time by a little cachacja or rum, “ para matar o 
bixo (to kill the beast). No one, it is believed, 
has yet discovered what this ferocious animal is. 
Only one thing is certain about him, and that is, 
that he is not dead yet, or likely to be, in spite of 
strenuous efforts. 

Another general occasion for renewed attempts to 
destroy him, and also for a good deal more waste of 
time, is the fetching of water. Water is not laid on 
into Brazilian houses, but, innocent of companies or 
water-works, gurgles out in public fountains, or pipes 
at the head of every street. It is a happy day for 
the black cook if there is a mob of his fellows wait¬ 
ing each for his or her turn at the stop-cock. Then 
he has a long and lazy gossip in the sunshine, or a 
squabble with his lady-love to the delight of his 
compatriots; and the animal that takes so much 
killing, undergoes fresh attacks. 

Some energetic mistresses, however, who find that 
cook has always to wait, employ the water-carrier, 
who brings the water in his cart, and carries it up¬ 
stairs. Then it is poured into great porous earthen 
jars on the landings, and cools in the draught. 

The good lady is generally something of a martinet 
in the matter of meals, and looks after them herself. 
A cup of strong coffee is generally taken at sunrise; 
and later comes the dejeuner a la fourchette. Din¬ 
ner is about one or two o’clock—alone a sufficient proof 
that business in Rio is not the tearing, pushing, soul 
and body and brain destroying affair it is in England. 
They take life much easier there. Mr. Fletcher 

n 2 


180 


BRAZIL. 


remarks that the first three Portuguese expressions 
the stranger learns inKio are—1, Paciencia, senhor; 
2, Amanhaa (to-morrow) ; and 3, Espere um pouco, 
senhor (wait a little, sir) : any one of them enough to 



WATER-VENDERS. 


drive an Anglo-Saxon beside himself. The good 
humoured Brazilians have a legend about their 
parent country that is not a little characteristic. 
“ Adam,” it says, “once begged leave to visit the 
earth. It was granted, and an angel carried him 
down. Backwards and forwards he flew with his 
heavenly conductor, but did not recognise his ancient 
kingdom—all was so changed, and new, and noisy. 
At last ho came to Portugal. ‘ Put me down, put me 
down,’ exclaimed the delighted patriarch; ‘all is 
here just as I left it.’ ” 

But to return to dinner: soup comes first; and 
then all the rest of the meal is put on the table at 
once—meat, fish, and pastry. When it is not a state 



MATE TEA. 


181 


affair, the national dish invariably comes up. It is 
made of feijao, the black beans of Brazil, jerked beef, 
and fat pork. Mandioca flour is sprinkled over it, 
and the whole is worked into a stiff paste. This 
flour, by the way, or farinha, is the food of the million; 
and it is the correct thing to eat it with the fingers. 
Its nature and preparation will be mentioned here¬ 
after. 

After dinner, coffee, .and sometimes, of late years, 
tea, are taken. Far more common, however, is the 
mate, the national beverage. It is to the Brazilian 
what tea is to the Englishman, or rather English¬ 
woman, and more. It consists of the powdered 
branches and bark of the Ilex Paraguayensis. In 
Brazil and Paraguay it is gathered wild in the forests 
during the whole year. The leaves and branches 
are broken off, and kiln-dried in the woods, and after¬ 
wards ground, or rather pounded in a mill. The 
coarse powder is packed in raw hides, in packages of 
about 120 lbs. each, and sent to market. For use, a 
little of the powder is put in a bowl, either with or 
without sugar, and some cold water poured on it. Boil¬ 
ing water is added when it has stood a short time ; 
and it is ready for use. It is drunk through a tube 
with a strainer at one end. In Chili and Peru the 
people say they could not live without it, and that it 
is meat and drink. Indians who have been rowing 
all day feel refreshed at once by a cup of the herb 
mixed with river water. The Brazilians use it 
largely, saying that it is not so heating as tea. The 
tree has never been successfully cultivated, so that 
the trade is confined to the forest provinces; but it 
is very large. The town of Paranagua, for instance, 
which only contains 3,000 inhabitants, yearly exports 


182 


BRAZIL. 


nearly 1,000,000 dollars’ worth of it. It is said to 
grow in Carolina, and to be sometimes used there 
also for tea-making purposes. 

Some families take supper, of fish or some other 
light matter. All retire so early to rest, that Eio at 
ten is more quiet than a European city at two in 
the morning. 

Now and then the Brazilian lady has a holiday, or 
rather a diversion, when the senhor takes her to 
Petropolis or Tijuca, or gives her a trip to Constancia 
or Novo Fribourgo. This is by no means universal, 
however; and she must generally content herself, in 
the way of entertainment, with a ball, or the opera, 
or with a festival when any are on hand. 

Balls are very popular in Bio. Evening parties 
generally mean dancing, music, and most undignified 
romps. The good Brazilian families are very exclu¬ 
sive, but at home are uncommonly fond of amuse¬ 
ments that seem to us better suited for the nursery. 
A game something like “puss in the comer” is the 
favourite in the intervals of dancing; so much so, 
that people of the highest rank join in it. A friend 
of Mr. Fletcher’s informed him that he had partici¬ 
pated in this intellectual pastime with a minister of 
the empire, a viscountess, two senators, an ex- 
minister plenipotentiary, three foreign charges d’ 
affaires, and the ladies and children of the family. 
Mr. Fletcher’s informant said, moreover, that nobody 
seemed to fear any loss of dignity, and all appeared 
to enjoy themselves to the utmost. 

And now for the menino. At the same time that 
his little sister is sent to school, that is, about ten or 
eleven, this precocious young man assumes the toga 
civilis. With a silk hat, “ stick-ups,” and a cane, 


BRAZILIAN YOUNG GENTLEMAN. 


183 


he begins to lounge about the fashionable parts of 
town. He never plays; he never runs: athletic 
exercises are an abomination to him, and at the 
collegio he attends are voted vulgar. This arises, it 
is to be feared, not from superciliousness, but sheer 
laziness. In England, the most aristocratic country 
perhaps in the world, the young men and boys of 
the highest classes inflict on themselves, as a matter 
of pride and enjoyment, exercise, exposure, and some¬ 
times even hardship so severe, that, were it not 
voluntary, it would be cruel. In other countries, 
and eminently in Brazil, the predominant feeling is 
that of the astonished old Turk, who, when he heard 
Englishmen speak of dancing as a pleasant exercise, 
stared, and with a wonder-stricken gasp ejaculated, 
“ Holy prophet! are you then so poor that you cannot 
pay persons to dance for you ?” 

The Brazilian boy is sent very early to the collegio, 
where he boards and lives, hardly ever seeing his 
family, though they may live only a street or two off. 
The esprit de corps runs high in these seminaries, 
and gets the young gentlemen occasionally into 
trouble. The law-scholars of Sao Paulo, inheriting, 
perhaps, the ancient character of the Paulistas, are 
peculiarly turbulent. Such a tumult took place at 
the theatre there some time ago, that the president of 
the province ordered a strong semi-military police 
force to attend the next performance; and even they 
had some difficulty in keeping the turbulent young¬ 
sters in order. If the police of Sao Paulo is as good 
as that of Rio, the tumult must have been really 
serious to have caused the least difficulty. No city 
is'better managed in this respect than the capital. 
The police is in fact a powerful military force, 


184 


BRAZIL. 


heavily armed, well disciplined, and commanded by 
officers of the regular army. This police-soldier is 
always where he is wanted, sometimes also, it must 
he confessed, though seldom, where he is not. Order 
is perfectly preserved in Rio, however, even among 
the motley and self-willed shipping population. 

Until recently, these collegios gave but a second- 
rate education. French and Portuguese, with the 
invariable Brazilian accomplishment of a beautiful 
handwriting, were the stock acquirements. For 
those who chose, or could afford it, music, English, 
and Latin might be learned. 

The great feature of the year was the examination. 
In the presence of an admiring circle of papas and 
mammas, the young gentlemen, curled and oiled, and 
dressed with extra stiffness, recited and acted, while, 
in the intervals, the professors delivered with much 
unction divers self laudatory harangues. In spite of 
much incapacity, nevertheless, teaching has been for 
many years a profitable trade in Brazil : one prin¬ 
cipal of a school, for instance, after but few years’ 
labour, succeeding in investing ten thousand dollars. 

There has been a great improvement lately. Brazil 
possesses a valuable functionary—a superintendent of 
public instruction. All professores were summoned 
by this stem official to attend at the military academy, 
and there pass a rigid examination. Even the prin¬ 
cipals did not escape. Those who passed received a 
license to teach, and all other schools were prohibited. 
Besides this, the educational authorities asserted and 
. enforced their right to visit all schools, even the 
private academies, at any hour of the day and night, 
and examine into the proficiency of the scholars, and 
their physical and moral condition. Nothing but 


SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES. 


185 


conscientious conduct could stand this test. The 
bad schools were shut up; and the good ones came 
out of the fire of innovation with double repu¬ 
tation. 

There is a very earnest desire in both the govern¬ 
ment and people to discover and establish the system 
of education best suited to the country. The national 
schools are very numerous, and, though yet in their 
infancy, are working well. 

In Rio there are the private schools or collegios, 
the national schools, and the colleges. These last 
are all under government direction, and consist of 
the Theological Seminary of St. Joseph, the Medical 
College, the Military and Naval Academies, and 
lastly the great college of Dom Pedro n. This is in 
fact the national university, though the university of 
Sao Paulo,would doubtless dispute this honour. The 
Paulistan method of instruction, however, is an 
imitation of the old system of the Portuguese univer¬ 
sity of Coimbra: arguments upon theses and viva 
voce examinations of twenty minutes on abstract 
points do not or did not recommend themselves to 
the practical Brazilian mind. There has been some¬ 
thing of a reform lately, and the numbers of the 
students are increasing. 

The college of Dom Pedro n. is more like a 
German gymnasium, or our own metropolitan col¬ 
leges, and deals in every-day useful learning. Its 
professorships are eminently well filled, and it is a 
fact worthy of notice, that its statutes provide ex¬ 
pressly for the reading and study of the Scriptures 
in the vulgar tongue. In this matter the private and 
other schools in the capital, as well as the lyceums in 
the provinces, follow its example. Some years ago, 


186 


BRAZIL. 


the college applied to the Eev. Mr. Spalding, an 
American minister, for Bibles for a professor and his 
whole class—a request which was instantly and gladly 
complied with. 

The rich Brazilian young gentleman contemns 
merchandise; so that the military and naval acade¬ 
mies, or, with senatorial objects, the college of Dom 
Pedro, or the law-schools of Sao Paulo or Pernam¬ 
buco, generally absorb him. Young Brazil is emi¬ 
nently well dressed, and easy-going: nevertheless, 
statesmen and diplomatists of no mean capacity are 
turned out even from among them; and the almost 
republican liberty allowed to any man to rise to any 
eminence if he can, together with the incalculable 
benefit of the great national library free to all, con¬ 
tinually recruit the upper classes and the government 
with the pith and marrow of all ranks. Any man in 
the empire may become a noble, if he be worth it. 
His peerage is only for life. Whatever the disadvan¬ 
tages of this system may be, it undoubtedly allows a 
far larger and easier safety-valve to ambition than a 
stricter and more feudalized, or hereditary aristo¬ 
cracy. There are six degrees of nobility—marquis, 
count, viscount com grandeza, baron com grandeza, 
viscount, and baron. 

The assemblea geral consists of the senate and 
the chamber of deputies. For the latter every male 
citizen of full age, if he possess an income of 100 
milreis, has a vote; monks and domestic servants 
are excluded. The chamber contains 111 members. 

The senate must, by the constitution, have half that 
number. It is chosen differently from the chamber. 
Electors are chosen by popular suffrage, who ballot 
for candidates for the senatorial dignity. The names 


POLITICAL PARTIES. 


187 


of the first three on the list are then submitted to the 
emperor, who selects one. He then takes his seat 
for life in the senate, and generally receives a title 
if he do not already possess one. The provincial 
assemblies are chosen directly by the people. 

The framers of the constitution devised the prac¬ 
tice, maintained to this day, of holding the elections 
in churches. The Brazilians say that this is to give 
the act solemnity, and to impose a check on out¬ 
breaks of political rancour. The device does not 
always succeed; and some grievous instauces have 
occurred, where one party has used the tall slender 
images and candlesticks from the altar, to impress 
conviction on the heads of their antagonists. All 
voting is by the ballot; but, as in the United States, 
this does not appear altogether to succeed. Every one 
knows somehow the way the votes are going, and 
who gave which ; and electioneering crowds manage 
important elections, now and then, after the fashion 
of the “ unterrified ” in North America. 

There are parties in the chambers, as in England. 
The saquaremas, who have the largest power and 
influence, and are generally “ in,” are the conserva¬ 
tives. The luzias are the liberals. Like the name of 
Guibelines from the town of Weiblingen, these cog¬ 
nomens are derived from two small electoral districts 
in which there was, on one occasion, a fierce contest. 

The two parties have been of late years, owing to 
the energy and wisdom of the late marquis of Parana, 
nearly amalgamated. The saquaremas are in power; 
but the best men among the luzias have joined, or 
join them from time to time; and the politics of the 
ministers and government party are almost as liberal 
and progressive as those of the luzias. 


188 


BRAZIL. 


The Brazilians are keen politicians; and for this 
appetite their free and able periodical press supplies 
sufficient food. Most of the reading of the country 
consists of the newspapers. If these are not enough, 
translations of French novels fill up the void. The 
number of newspapers is considerable. In Bio alone 
there are four d^iily papers, ten weekly journals, and 
several three-weekly ones. The monthly ones are 
not only numerous, but exceedingly able. There is 
also a Medical Be view, and a Brazilian and Foreign 
Quarterly. The last is the most notable and original 
publication in the empire; but it suffers from the 
paucity of good original writers in Brazil, or rather 
from the diffidence with which natives regard their 
own literary efforts as yet; and consequently fre¬ 
quent—too frequent—and needless resort is had to 
translations: indeed, all through the country, there 
is as yet too great a deference to European letters, 
especially to the French; and naturally so, since that 
is the nearest tongue to their own that at present 
possesses anything of a vigorous and literary life. 
The book-shops swarm with French works on all 
subjects ; and the demand for the infidel and immoral 
part of this deeply corrupted literature is painfully 
large. Still Brazil is young, and rapidly growing, 
while her press is perfectly untrammelled. 'When 
we see how slowly America, under the same condi¬ 
tions, casts aside dependence on an imitation of 
English models, and gives her own peculiar and 
great talent free scope ; and when we remember how 
long it was before Prussia broke the yoke of French 
literary slavery, imposed on her by her own German 
anti-Gallic king, and rose to her present undisputed 
philosophical and historical supremacy, we need not 


LITERATURE AND LANGUAGE. 


189 


tear that Brazil will permanently be to France what 
Konae was to Greece. 

Within the last few years there have been a number 
of very creditable histories and scientific works by 
Brazilians, and one or two attempts at the history 
of Brazil itself. Of all that has been written in the 
Portuguese language within the last 100 years, Brazil 
has contributed her full share ; and some names 
among her writers are by no means unknown to the 
few who are acquainted with the literature of this 
noble and ancient tongue. Caldas and Magalhaens, 
for instance, are sweet and graceful poets; Moraes is 
a profound philologist; and the great Andradas a,re 
more than well-known in the walks of science and 
philosophy. 

Some have looked on the fact that the young em¬ 
pire’s language is the Portuguese as a misfortune : 
except for the fact that it is unaccountably unpopular 
among the learned, it is difficult to see why. No 
living language is more powerful or flexible; no 
living language, we are assured on the best authority, 
so nearly approaches the terse power and majesty of 
ancient Latin. Southey, than whom no more reliablq 
judge of the grace and power of language can be 
quoted, said, “ It is inferior to no modern speech,” 
and declared that it contained “ some of the most 
original and admirable works he had ever perused.” 
Schlegel, also, in his “ History of Literature,” bears 
the highest testimony to its beauty and copious¬ 
ness, and speaks with great admiration of Camoens. 
Of this author’s Lusiad, a distinguished French 
author says, perhaps with a little exaggeration, “ It 
is the first epic of modern times.” Sismondi’s verdict 
is, “ The distinguished men whom Portugal has pro- 


190 


BRAZIL. 


duced, have given to their country every branch of 
literature. . . Portuguese literature is complete; we 
find in it every department of letters .”—{De la Litera¬ 
ture du Midi de VEurope , vol. iv. p. 262.) “ The Por¬ 

tuguese language,” says M. Sarre, “ is beautiful, 
sonorous, and copious; it is free ifrom that guttural* 
ness with which we reproach the Spanish ; it has the 
sweetness and flexibility of the Italian, and the 
gravity and descriptiveness of the Latin.” 

It remains yet to be seen whether the American 
descendants of the Portuguese, the inheritors of their 
ancient liberties and ancient tongue, will be able to 
carry on the task they have so well begun, and create 
on the other side of the Atlantic a literature equal or 
superior to that which their language has already 
shown itself capable of producing. There are many 
signs indicating that they will; and it is to be 
hoped that the faults and blemishes that disfigure the 
models they have hitherto largely followed may be 
avoided, and that the prevailing tone of the press in 
Brazil may become more and more deeply religious. 
Nothing can so soon or entirely effect this desirable 
object as a large distribution throughout the land, 
first, of the fountain of all truth, the word of God, and 
next of those books and periodicals which draw their 
inspiration, or at least take their tone, from that pure 
source. Literary and scientific activity are indeed 
excellent and valuable. But they are causes of doubt 
and hope, until sanctified by a fervent and constant 
acknowledgment of and submission to Him, who 
alone can keep the labouring mind of man from 
error; and above all, by an unceasing proclamation of 
the only way of salvation—faith in the finished work 
of Jesus Christ, by the influence of the Holy Spirit. 


NEWSPAPERS—MINISTERS’ REPORTS. 


191 


Whatever literature the Brazilians do produce is 
well done. Their newspapers are larger, better 
printed, and on better paper than the Paris journals; 
and their “folhetim” (feuilleton), and the Sunday 
columns of “pacotilha” (gossip), are equally well 
written with their French prototypes. Unlike 
England and America, the daily journals make Sun¬ 
day no exception in their publication. 

One form of literary labour Brazil has almost pecu¬ 
liar to itself, and therein sets an example to other 
countries—the relatorios, or annual reports of the 
minister of the empire, or premier, of finance, jus¬ 
tice, foreign affairs, war, and the navy. In these 
most able and entertaining publications, Brazil is 
practically writing her own history by the hands of 
those who guide it. Any one whose occasions call him 
to wade through an English blue-book, say one of the 
light works on charities composed by the commission 
that expired a few years ago, may envy Brazilians. 
The relatorio of the minister of justice is a work of 
enormous labour. Every jury case in all the twenty 
provinces of the empire is tabled, with the crime, 
age, sex, nation, and punishment of the criminal. 

The most amusing part of a Brazilian newspaper is 
the advertisement sheet. It must be profitable, too, 
for every communication has to be paid for ; so that 
iC writing to the Times ” in Brazil is an expensive 
amusement. A sample or two taken at random may 
be entertaining. 

“ S or Jose Domingos da Costa is requested to pay at N°. 35 Rua de S. Jose, 
the sum of 600 milreis. If he does not, in 3 days, his conduct will he exposed 
in this journal; and also the manner in which this debt was contracted." 

“ Wanted—A white lady of faithful conduct, and enough wits to make 
company for a young bride who is under age, and wants some instruction appro¬ 
priate to her state. Whoever is of fit circumstances may announce it in this 
journal/' 


192 


BRAZIL. 


“ Mr. Editor,—Since the vicar of a certain pari.-h, on the 8th inst., having 
said mass with all his accustomed affectation, turned round to the people and 
said, with an air of mockery, * As we have no festival to day, let us say over 
the Litany,’ &c., I would respond, that the reverend vicar knows well the 
reason why there was no festival. Let him be assured, however, that when 
intrigue disappears, the festival will take place; but if he is in a hurry, let him 
undertake it at his own expense; since whosoever says the paternoster gets the 
benefit. 

“Ax Enemy to Hypocrites.’’ 


This last is almost equal to the incoherent wrath 
of some of our own “ constant readers,” and doubtless 
cut the vicar to the quick, dark as it seems to the 
world at large. 

The great National Library contains 100,000 
volumes. It was chiefly brought over by king John, 
and is annually augmented by donations and govern¬ 
ment aid. It was thrown open by its founder to the 
people, and has remained perfectly free ever since. 
The English, German, and Portuguese residents have 
also established large libraries. The English is 
extensive and valuable. 

In the Campo de Santa Anna is the great National 
Museum, that grows almost as fast as the Zoological 
Gardens and the British Museum together. 

There is an Imperial Academy of the Fine Arts 
constituted and conducted on the exact model of our 
own Royal Academy. 

The scientific societies of Brazil are very numerous, 
and most vigorous and successful. The leading one 
is the Historical and Geographical Institute, which 
has preserved the ancient records, both native and 
colonial, of the empire. Its organ is a Quarterly 
Review and Journal, well written and valuable. It 
meets on the first Friday in each month; and no one 
so regularly attends its sittings as the emperor. It 
includes among its members nearly all the leading 


OFFICIALS—JUDICIAL PROCEEDINGS. 193 

men of tlie country, chiefly of the learned professions, 
to which nearly all functionaries of any station belong. 

With regard to some of the civil servants and 
officials of the empire, there is a rule which works ex¬ 
ceedingly well, and seems sound in principle. After 
a certain number of years’ service, the employe, if his 
conduct has been faultless, has the privilege, on retir¬ 
ing, of receiving from the treasury a sum equal to all 
the salaries of his years of service added together. Of 
course this tends to keep men not only long in office, 
but faithful and energetic. Office-holders do not, as 
in America, change with the ministry; and thus, 
relieved from the fear of losing their livelihood, all 
their energies are directed to keeping their post as 
long, and doing its duties as well as they can, regard¬ 
less of the influence of party leaders. 

The administration of justice is conducted very 
much after the manner of the United States, and with 
dignity and impartiality. In the matter of swearing 
oaths, not only America, but England, might take a 
lesson from Brazil. Instead of a sleepy clerk, usher, 
or registrar mumbling over an oath, in a tone and 
terms irresistibly ludicrous were they only audible, 
all the court—judge, officers, and bar—and all the 
spectators, rise and stand while the oath is solemnly 
administered, the witness swearing audibly with his 
hand on the Bible. All stand, also, when the jury 
leave or enters the court-room. They, the jury, 
need not be unanimous; and as they consist of twelve, 
the judge has a casting vote. 

The judge first examines the prisoner (supposing 
the case to be a criminal one) most minutely and 
lengthily as to his acts, and even his motives. The 
record of former proceedings, with the evidence up 

o 


194 


BRAZIL. 


to that point, is read. Then witnesses are examined, 
and the advocates make their speeches. The judge 
draws up a series of questions, the answers to which 
are the verdict, charges the jury, and dismisses them 
to their room to deliberate. Every cause, however 
long, is usually finished at one sitting. 

Mr. Fletcher mentions one singular case:—A negro 
was tried for having in his pocket a jack-knife, which 
is prohibited : a white man during the trial, claimed 
him as his slave : both issues were tried; and the 
prisoner was declared a free man and committed to 
prison for a month. He had judicially gained his 
freedom by breaking the law. 

The tone of the legal profession is rising in Brazil. 
Complaints of unfairness and incompetence, and 
accusations of bribery, are dying out under the 
vigorous hand of the minister of public justice : the 
codes are becoming better digested ; and some of the 
best men in the empire now belong to the profession, 
while many are joining it daily. 

The medical profession stands deservedly high, 
though many of its members are foreigners; and 
they have peculiar diseases whereon to exercise their 
talents, though the country generally is pre-eminently 
healthy. Cholera is deadly sometimes, but not more 
so than in its terrible European visitations. Yellow 
fever is an abiding guest, but, except in the height 
of the summer, and in the dirtiest parts of the dirty 
towns, is by no means alarmingly common. Ele¬ 
phantiasis, also, the natural concomitant of filth, 
laziness, and heat, and other forms of leprous disease, 
appear to the stranger painfully prevalent. In some 
of the mountainous districts the horrible-looking 
goitre, or, as the Brazilians call it, papos, exists. Yon 


PECULIAR DISEASES. 195 

Martins says he found in the beautiful district of 
Piantry and in the valley of the Parahiba river 
instances of this swelling larger than any in Europe. 
It does not seem, however, necessarily to involve 
cretinism, or any feebleness of mind. 

But there is another local disease which appears 
altogether peculiar to Brazil. 

“ 1 was sitting/' says Mr. Fletcher, « in the office of Dr.-, when I observed 

a 1 ortuguese about sixty years of age enter and demand, with great earnest¬ 
ness, it he thought that he could live. Soon after, a middle-aged Brazilian came, 
and, seeming to cling to the words of the physician as tenaciously as to a divine 
oracle, made nearly the same interrogatory. Neither of these men appeared in 
ill health; and had I not heard them state that they had great difficulty in 
swallowing, I should have considered them in a perfect sanitary condition. 
Upon inquiry, I ascertained from the doctor that these men had a disease which 
is w idely prevalent in some portions of interior Brazil; but he has never seen a 
notice of it in any medical work whatever. The Brazilians call it vial de 
engasgo. The first indication of its existence is a difficulty in swallowing. 
The patient can swallow dry substances better than fluids. Wine or milk can 
be drunk w itb more facility than water; still, both are attended with difficulty. 
To take thin broth is an impossibility. In some cases fluids have been con¬ 
veyed to the stomach in connexion with some solid. The person thus affected 
appears to be in good health, but in five or six years death ensues from actual 
starvation. The sufferings of such a one was described to me as most horrible. 
Some physicians in the province of Sao Paulo think it a paralysis of the oeso¬ 
phagus ; but Dr. , w'ho has seen many cases of the vial de engasgo, inclines to 

the belief that it is a thickening of the mucous membrane. As the oesophagus 
is in general the least affected by disease of any part of the body, and is very 
rarely paralysed, he cannot believe that so wide-spread a disease as the mal de 
engasgo can proceed from paralysis. ... He informed me that he was 
called to visit a man suffering from this malady eighty miles from Limeira, and 
to his astonishment found in the same room no less than nine persons similarly 
affected. As yet no remedy has been found. The full extent of country over 
which the mal de engasgo prevails is not known ; but to this physician’s cer¬ 
tain knowledge it exists from Limeira (200 miles from the sea-coast) to Goyaz, 
a distance of 400 miles. It is not found on the coast; and a journey to the 
sea-board always benefits the afflicted patient.” 


The various scorbutic, cuticular, and otherwise 
outward and repulsive diseases, were some years ago 
a source of abundant profit to a class now under very 
stringent control. Mexico absolutely swarms with 
leperos, or beggars. Mr. Buxton classes them with 
mosquitoes as the two greatest objections to travel- 

o 2 


196 


BRAZIL. 


ling there. Spain and Portugal are likewise overrun 
with these people, who feed on, hut in no way contri¬ 
bute to support, the body politic. Our own country, 
in spite of heavy poor’s rates, does not enjoy immu¬ 
nity from the pest; but Brazil is nearly free from it. 
The richness and prosperity of a country have 
nothing to do with the trade of mendicancy. Multi¬ 
tudes of whining beggars are no necessary index of 
calamity or famine: on the contrary, the more 
bountiful the earth, the more genial the climate, the 
pleasanter is the occupation, and more take St. Laza¬ 
rus as their patron. The process the Brazilian 
authorities have adopted make a Londoner’s heart 
sink with hopeless envy. To take Bio as an example : 
Mr. Walsh, in 1828, remarked on the paucity of 
beggars there. But heat and food breed vermin fast; 
and in 1838, the town was so beset with them as to 
be hardly passable in some places. In certain 
thoroughfares they waited in mobs, saluting the pas¬ 
sengers with the melancholy drawl of “Favoretja o 
seu pobre pelo amor de Deos.” The ordinary black¬ 
mail was received as a matter of course. If any bold 
rebel ventured on the gravely ironical fonn of refusal 
“Deos lhe favosa” (May God help you), showers 
of insult and mud followed him from the wrathful 
beggars, not at all content with Divine, apart from 
human, aid. As was to be expected, thieves, bullies, 
and all the scum of the city enrolled themselves 
among these prosperous vagabonds. The police in 
Brazil, however, is stronger than ours. The nuisance 
had reached its height, when at one fell swoop the 
whole race were arrested and packed off to the house 
of correction. The stragglers who had escaped were 
picked up under the stimulus of a judicious reward 


MENDICANTS. 


197 


offered to the constables for every beggar they 
caught. When the minister had got his victims, he 
set some to labour at the arsenal, which was in want 
of hands : the rest he forced, with most aggravating 
impartiality, to work at the penitentiary till they 
had paid for their own apprehension and incarcera¬ 
tion. This cleared the streets for a long time of all 
but real objects of charity, whom the police did not 
trouble. 

Nevertheless, four years ago the nuisance was as 
bad as ever, and more disgusting. All the beggars 
seemed diseased. The new minister of police made 
inquiries into this singular phenomenon—singular, 
because the diseases were very generally not such as 
would wash, or pull off. He found that old slaves 
with elephantiasis, ophthalmia, and other disagreeable 
affections, were sent out by their masters into the 
streets to excite the pity of the charitable. The 
Brazilians have a wise proverb, “He who has eaten 
the meat, ought to gnaw the bones.” The minister 
objected, on behalf of the community, to support those 
who were worn out in the service of individuals. 
He forbade any person to beg on any pretence unless 
he were licensed so to do by the government. This 
enactment was enforced, and so stringently, that 
only twelve beggars now exist in Rio. These happy 
dozen find their business most profitable. Some are 
carried in hammocks by two slaves each ; others are 
drawn in a carriage b}^ one. One gentleman is 
pulled along by a fat sheep; and another rides on a 
white horse—this last has the excuse of having* 
only one foot; but others, and especially a lady 
who rides a good horse, and wears a feather in her 
bonnet, have nothing on earth the matter with them. 


198 


BKAZIL. 


at least visibly. This heroine waxed very wroth 
when Mr. Fletcher mildly remarked on the incon¬ 
sistency, to use no harsher term, of her profession 
and her practice. 



BRAZILIAN BEGGAR. 


Though any description of the darker and fouler 
side of the morality, or immorality, of Brazil would 
be out of place here, one indication of the existence 
of frightful evil may be given. The Casa da Boda 
(house of the wheel), or Foundling Hospital in Kio, is 
conducted on the principle which parliament adopted 
many years ago, and carried on for some time with re¬ 
spect to our own Foundling Hospital, namely, that of 
indiscriminate reception. It was abandoned in Eng¬ 
land, from the appalling evils to which it gave rise : 
it would be well if it were so in Brazil. The wheel 
occupies the place of a window, and revolves on a 
perpendicular axis; any person may put her wretched 
infant in this receptacle, and a turn of the wheel 
deposits it within the walls of the institution, and 









FOUNDLINGS. 


199 


separates her from it for ever. No less than 3630 
infants were thus disposed of in Eio, during the ten 
years before 1840—a very large number when we 
consider the population, which even now for the 
whole empire does not exceed seven millions and a 
half, and of course at that time was very much less. 
Of these 3630, only 1024 were living in 1840. In 
1838-9, 449 were put in the wheel: six were taken 
out dead; many died the first day afterwards; and 
239 in a very few days more. The minister of the 
empire, in his report for 1854-5, states that in 1854, 
588 foundlings were received, which, with sixty- 
eight already in the place, made 656 : 435 died. In 
1853, 630 were received, and 515 died. One of the 
physicians of the hospital remarked to Mr. Fletcher, 
“ Monsieur, c’est une boucherie.” 

Madame Pfeiffer, with the rather stem view she 
not unfrequently takes of matters, accuses the Bra¬ 
zilians of greediness and immorality in somewhat 
sweeping terms. Her testimony as to facts is unim¬ 
peachable ; so that she had some reason, we doubt not, 
for the following verdict, which deserves quotation, 
as that of a celebrated and reliable traveller of some 
3 ^ears ago, (1846.)* 

“ The strongest feature in the European Americans 
is the greed for gold. This often becomes a passion, 
and transforms the most faint-hearted white into a 
hero; for it certainly requires the courage of one to 
live alone, as planter on a plantation with perhaps 
some hundred slaves, far removed from all assistance, 
and with the prospect of being irrevocably lost in the 
event of any revolt. 

“ This grasping feeling is not confined to the men 

* “ A Woman’s Journey round tbe World.” 


200 


BRAZIL. 


alone: it is found among the women as well, and is 
greatly encouraged by a common custom here, agreeably 
to which a husband never assigns his wife so much 
for pin-money, but, according to his means, makes 
her a present of one or more female slaves, whom she 
can dispose of as she chooses. She generally has them 
taught how to cook, sew, embroider, or even instructed 
in some trade, and then lets them out, by the day, 
week, or month,* to people who possess no slaves of 
their own; or she lets them take in washing at home, 
or employs them in the manufacture of various orna¬ 
mental objects, fine pastry, etc., which she sends them 
out to sell. The money for these things belongs to 
her, and is generally spent in dress and amusement. 

“ In the case of tradesmen and professional men, 
the wife is always paid for whatever assistance she 
may lend her husband in his business. 

“Morality, unfortunately, is not very general in 
the Brazils; one cause of this may be traced to the 
manner in which the children are first brought up. 
They are confided entirely to the care of blacks. 
Negresses suckle them when they are infants, their 
nurses are negresses, their attendants are negresses; 
and I have often seen girls of eight or ten years of 
age taken to school, or any other place, by young 
negroes. The sensuality of the blacks is too well 
known for us to be surprised, with such a state of 
things, at the early and general demoralization. In 
no other place did I ever behold so many children 
with such pale and worn faces as in the streets of 
Rio de Janeiro. 

* They are differently paid, according to what they can do. The usual hire 
of a maid-servant is from ten to twelve shillings a month; for a cook twenty- 
four to forty; for a nurse thirty-eight to forty; for a skilful labourer fifty to 
seventy. 


IRRELIGION—MURDERS. 


201 


“ The second cause of immorality here is, without 
doubt, the want of religion. The Brazils are thoroughly 
Roman Catholic: perhaps there are no countries 
save Spain and Italy that can be compared to them. 
Almost every day there is some procession, service, 
or church festival; but these are attended merely for 
the sake of amusement, while the true religious feel¬ 
ing is entirely wanting. 

“We may also ascribe to this deep demoralization, 
and want of religion, the frequent occurrence of 
murders, committed not for the sake of robbery or 
theft, but from motives of revenge and hatred. The 
murderer either commits the deed himself, or has it 
perpetrated by one of his slaves, who is ready to lend 
himself for the purpose in consideration of a mere 
trifle. The discovery of the crime need cause the 
assassin no anxiety, provided he is rich; for in this 
country, I was assured, everything can be arranged 
or achieved with money. I saw several men in Rio 
Janeiro who had, according to report, committed, 
either themselves or by means of others, not one, but 
several murders, and yet they not only enjoyed per¬ 
fect liberty, but were received in every society.” 

Somewhat inconsistently with this, she says else¬ 
where : “ The circumstance which must strike a tra¬ 
veller most forcibly in the habits of the colonists and 
inhabitants of the Brazils, is the contrast between 
fear and courage. On the one hand, every one you 
meet upon the road is armed with pistols and long 
knives, as if the whole country was overrun with 
robbers and murderers ; while, on the other, the pro¬ 
prietors live quite alone on their plantations, and 
without the least apprehension, in the midst of their 
numerous slaves. The traveller, too, fearlessly passes 


202 


BRAZIL. 


the night in some venda (inn), situated in impene¬ 
trable woods, with neither shutters to the windows, 
nor good locks to the doors; besides which, the 
owner’s room is a considerable distance from the 
chambers of the guests, and it would be utterly im¬ 
possible to obtain any assistance from the servants, 
who are all slaves, as they live either in some corner 
of the stable, or in the loft. 

“ 1 know very few countries in Europe where I 
should like to traverse vast forests, and pass the 
night in such awfully lonely houses, accompanied 
only by a hired guide.” 

What we have been describing is the social state of 
Brazil in the larger towns and civilized districts. Any 
one who should conclude that the whole of this vast, 
fertile, empty country was as quiet and old-world¬ 
like as the provinces of Bio or Bahia, would be much 
mistaken. For instance: the great north-eastern 
province of Pernambuco, which has for its capital the 
prosperous city of the same name, consists in great 
j>art of the “ sertao,” or backwoods. It is a great plain, 
slightly undulating, thin and poor, with a few dwarf 
forests. Along a certain line, however, lie great 
districts of fertile land, laid out in sugar estates. 
From the Recife to the Una, a distance of seventy- 
five miles, lie no less than 300 plantations. 

The sertao is productive, but only of vast herds of 
mules and cattle. Pernambuco annually exports four 
millions of dollars worth of hides, cotton, and sugar. 
In the back settlements of this prosperous and busy 
province, society is in a most patriarchal state, and 
education is at a very low ebb. The emperor’s writ 
hardly runs there, and the only revenue that can be 
collected arises from customs’ duties. A few years 


BACKWOODSMEN OF PERNAMBUCO. 203 

ago, some brilliant Brazilian chancellor of the ex¬ 
chequer put an excise duty on hides and herds of 
cattle. One experiment at collecting it was quite 
enough. The “sertanejos,” backwoodsmen, caught 
the miserable tax-gatherer with the same glee that a 
Galway mob would seize a process-server, stripped 
him, killed a bullock, sewed him up in it, with his 
head protruding, and sent him back with the Spartan 
message, “ If the emperor wants beef, let his man take 
it with him.” 

These sertanejos are a peculiar class, something 
like the muleteers of Spain, the camel-drivers of the 
Arabian desert, or the gambusinos of Texas and 
Mexico. They wear a battered steeple-crowned hat, 
an enormous stock of hair, a cotton shirt and breeches, 
and nothing else. Each one has his string of patient, 
well-educated horses. As soon as he mounts one a 
feat he achieves by seizing the tail and putting one 
foot on the hock—all the others, loaded each with two 
bags arranged like panniers and covered with a raw 
hide, immediately fall into line : he and his caravan 
will travel for a fortnight through the sertao. His 
only companions are a monkey sitting on one horse, 
a parrot and his wife on another, and a huge, hoarse 
blue and yellow macaw on a third. He fears no 
robbers, for there are none, and sleeps in his ham¬ 
mock in the open air, slung to a tree, with his fire 
sputtering and blazing in the circle of his sleeping 
beasts. He worships only one saint, the patron of all 
who ride on horses, who is kept shut up in a box on 
one of the gates of Pernambuco. The sertanejos’ 
devotions are short, consisting of taking off his hat 
once or twice in the year, when his business brings 
him to town. 


204 


BRAZIL. 


The productiveness of the province is very great. 
In 1856, Great Britain alone imported 21,830,000 lbs. 
of cotton from Brazil, of which nearly a third came 
from Pernambuco; and the increase year by year is 
rapid in all produce, sugar especially. In 1821, 
the district exported 20,000,000 lbs. of sugar. In 
1853, the exports reached 140,000,000 lbs., and in 
1855, 254,765,504 lbs. It would be difficult in all 
the annals of trade to find such a rapid increase in so 
short a time. 

The people of the province are painfully ignorant, 
though, as well as lawless. It was there that one of 
the most astounding delusions of modern times, not 
excepting that of the Southcotians, after Joanna’s 
death, or that of the Mormonites, arose. There is a 
sect in Portugal, and in Brazil, especially in Pernam¬ 
buco, which believes that Don Sebastian, the young 
king who in 1577 was slain by the Moors in Africa, 
is still alive, and will re-appear on earth to inaugurate 
a millennium, to which all others are as nothing : the 
clergy of both countries have to some extent sanc¬ 
tioned this extravagant fancy. Depending on this, 
Don Sebastians have at various times appeared, and 
many prophecies have been uttered concerning his 
advent. In 1838, this semi-priestly falsehood brought 
forth most lamentable results in Pernambuco. 

In that year, one Joao Antonio, whether from 
fraudulent motives, delusion, or sheer mischief, an¬ 
nounced that Don Sebastian was about to appear. He 
selected as the scene of his advent a deep forest 
near Pianco, in the Comarca de Flores. It was a 
remote and unfrequented place; and near at hand 
were two huge, volcanic caverns. The vague super¬ 
stitious fears of the people had already endued the 


DELUSIONS. 205 

spot with a mysterious horror: and this annuncia¬ 
tion of the ancient king’s immediate advent com¬ 
manded extensive and implicit belief. 

The prophet stated that the forest and caves were 
enchanted, and that the moment the enchantment was 
removed Don Sebastian would forthwith appear at 
the head of a great army, with glory and majesty, 
and would confer wealth and happiness, of course on 
those who joined Joao Antonio. 

The method of disenchantment proposed by this 
fiend, was to sprinkle the soil of the region with the 
blood of 100 innocent children. What his object 
was in this, or whether he had any, is difficult to dis¬ 
cover. It resembles the insane hatred of Mokanna, 
the prophet of Khorassan to the whole human race, 
rather than any definite scheme. If children suffi¬ 
cient could not be found, the apostle announced that he 
would be content with adults. All who were thus 
slain should, according to him, rise again in a few 
days, and become possessed of the riches of the earth. 

The wretch’s heart seems to have failed him at the 
last moment, and he delegated the horrible denoue¬ 
ment of his drama to an accomplice, Joao Ferreira. 
This person assumed the title of “His Holiness,” 
put a wreath of rushes on his head, and required all 
his followers to kiss his toe on pain of instant death. 
Under his guidance the infatuated multitude wan¬ 
dered out to the designated spot. The larger portion 
of the devotees were women and girls, bringing the 
miserable children who were to be the victims with 
them. One of the ceremonies consisted of marrying, 
with superstitious rites, every man to two or three 
women. After immoralities too horrible to describe, 
the slaughter began. Parents brought forward their 


206 


BRAZIL. 


children one by one, and with their own hands 
stabbed them, or cut their throats. When the 
children came to an end, adults were offered. The 
carnage proceeded deliberately for two days, when 
the brother of the prophet, envying his sanguinary 
authority, thrust a spear through him, and reigned in 
his stead. One of the votaries, whom this usurpation 
brought to reason, escaped and informed the civil 
authorities of the tragedy that was going on. Troops 
were instantly marched to the spot; but the miser¬ 
able Sebastianists had been assured by their prophet 
that the first attack upon them would be the signal 
for the immediate restoration of the kingdom, the 
resurrection of the dead, and the destruction of their 
enemies. The moment they caught sight of the 
troops, they attacked them with frantic ferocity, 
actually killing five of the soldiers, and wounding 
several more. In self-defence, the officers gave 
orders to fire, but it was not till twenty-six men and 
three women had been shot down or bayonetted that 
the mob was dispersed. Women, with their husbands 
writhing at their feet, yelled “ Viva, viva! the hour 
is come.” The survivors either escaped into the 
woods, or were made prisoners. So profound had 
been the poor creatures’ faith in the assurances of 
their deceivers, that they had not attempted to bury 
the bodies of their victims, young or old, but left 
them mangled on the earth, awaiting their immediate 
restoration to life. Hardly the performances of John 
of Leyden, or the Anabaptists of Munster, or the 
falling sicknesses of Shetland. Iceland, and the High¬ 
lands, present such a proof of the awful power that is 
occasionally permitted, we cannot but believe, to 
infernal spirits. There is nothing so terrible as the 


BRAZILIANS AND PORTUGUESE. 207 

history of enthusiasm;—there is nothing that ought 
to make us so fervently acknowledge the necessity of 
the guidance of God’s Holy Spirit, as the many 
alarming evidences of how far belief, the most power¬ 
ful agency that can influence men, may drive them 
when employed by Satanic hands. 

In Pernambuco and the other northern provinces, 
a sentiment is very prevalent that must not be for¬ 
gotten while considering the social condition of 
Brazil; namely, the remnant of the old bitter hosti¬ 
lity between the Brazilians and the Portuguese. In 
the busy towns of the north it is still very strong. 
Though the original cause has disappeared, the 
soreness remains; and no Norman earl or baron 
looked on Lombards with more contemptuous aver¬ 
sion, and yet unwilling respect, than the Brazileiro 
affects for the Portuguese who came across the 
Atlantic to make their fortunes. The true Brazilians 
form about a third of the population of the empire : 
the floating Portuguese population is about a sixth : 
the other half is made up of foreigners, negroes, 
mulattoes, mestizoes, and Indians. The Brazilians 
scorn any occupation except government office, 
military or naval posts, land-owning, independent 
gentility, and, after a fashion, the priesthood. The 
negroes and Indians are the hewers of wood and 
drawers of water to the Brazilians. Consequently 
the buying and selling of goods, shopkeeping, and 
merchandise generally, fall into the hands of 
foreigners, and above all of the sharp, self-reliant, 
money-making Portuguese. Towards these there is 
a deep prejudice and aversion very generally felt, 
and perhaps not altogether without reason. First 
and foremost there is nothing a proud, poor, lazy 


208 


BRAZIL. 


man hates so much as a pushing, wealthy tradesman 
or mill-owner. Tastes, feelings, envy, self-reproach, 
all combine to make him odious. Next there is the 
remembrance of the troublesome times under king 
John, when every avenue to distinction in church 
and state was crowded, to the exclusion of natives, 
■with proud and needy Portuguese. The bitter 
hatred an old Brazileiro felt towards the penniless 
adventurer who filled the office he had hoped for 
over his head, and treated him at court with incivility 
and ridicule, is still continued when the Brazilian is 
the noble and the gentleman, and the Portuguese is 
the humble mechanic or shopkeeper. Lastly, the 
Brazilians feel that these clever people from the old 
country are of little use. Certainly they bring 
inventions and industry, but it is onty foreigners who 
care to practise either extensively. Their sole object 
is to make and save the largest possible amount of 
money in the smallest possible time. They are not 
manufacturers or land-tillers, but shopkeepers and 
money-changers; they spend as little as they can; 
and as soon as they have made enough, they take it 
away to spend in Europe. The Brazilian scowls at 
every ship-load of Portuguese lads that lands. He 
knows that every one of them looks on him and his 
country as a gold-digger looks on his allotment—to 
be squeezed and exhausted as rapidly and thoroughly 
as may be. The legend among the Brazilians is that 
every one of these emigrants brings a huge chest 
occupying to an inch all the room allowed him in the 
hold ; at the custom-house, it is discovered that this 
ark contains generally one shirt, one pair of socks, 
needles and thread, and two or three strings of 
Spanish onions. Ten or twelve years of shopkeeping 


BRAZILIAN PREJUDICE. 


209 


or honest work at some trade, and the boy, now 
a middle-aged man, having regularly remitted to 
Europe every sixpence he could save, returns home, 
always well off, sometimes affluent, not unfrequently 
leaving a valuable business to be carried on by his 
agents for him. With him he takes the identical 
family chest—not now an aching void, but strapped 
and corded to keep it from bursting, with a colony of 
other boxes and carpet-bags clustering round it. Not 
seldom, too, he has paid to the surly Brazilian official 
—surly to him though politeness itself in general— 
duty on no inconsiderable amount of specie. Thus 
it is that between the natives of the old country and 
the new there is an irreconcilable feud. However 
much the envious Brazileiros exaggerate the mean¬ 
ness, miserliness, and consequent prosperity of their 
obnoxious cousins, they believe quite enough of their 
own stories very seriously to damage themselves: 
it is a fact that the mechanic arts and all but the 
very loftiest and most dignified branches of commerce 
are falling more and more into the hands either of 
foreigners or inferior natives. This foolish prejudice, 
if indulged in, threatens to prevent the formation or 
continuance of perhaps the most really valuable and 
stable class in a nation—the native shopkeepers, 
small manufacturers, petty tradesmen and so forth; 
those whose capital is invested in destructible stock, 
sure first to suffer in the smallest riot; those whose 
very existence depends on peace, order, and credit— 
the bourgeoisie or citizen class. If this class is com¬ 
posed of foreigners, perpetually going off to spend 
their earnings in some other country, and being 
renewed by fresh batches of emigrants, the nation 
has no sympathy for them, or interest in their pros- 


210 


BRAZIL. 


perity, and they have no power over the counsels 
of the nation. Some foreign observer of England 
has said, “ Whatever the shopkeepers of London 
determine to have, is done, though all the rest of the 
nation resist. They are the real rulers of England.” 
This is exaggerated, doubtless, but there is some 
truth in it too. Now, if the shopkeepers of Rio, 
Pernambuco, Bahia, or other large towns in Brazil 
were to set their hearts on anything, that would be 
prima facie a good and sufficient reason with a Brazi¬ 
lian assembly for not doing it. 

As the country becomes fuller, and the polite 
methods of obtaining a livelihood become over¬ 
stocked, there will in all probability be a change in 
this matter, and the Brazilians will find out that mer¬ 
cantile pursuits are no disgrace; for they do not lack 
the requisite talents and energy to succeed in them. 

The great employment of nearly all classes is, as 
has been mentioned, music. The richer classes are 
all excellent performers on the harp and piano, while 
the guitar and its negro counterpart the marimbas, 
more popularly known as the banjo, are the universal 
companions of the poor, or rather poorer, for there 
are hardly any paupers in this happy land. Over 
the length and breadth of the country are spread 
those ubiquitous ditties known among us as “negro 
melodies.” They really must appeal to some sympa¬ 
thetic feeling of our fallen nature. The corruption 
of some Italian lay, composed by a negro on a South 
Carolina estate from hearing his mistress trying over 
the original, wanders to New Orleans, then to New 
York and Boston: thence it finds its way to 
England, is sung in chorus by our black-faced street 
bands, set upon barrel organs, whistled by our street- 


NEGRO MELODIES. 


211 


boys, and sold by thousands in our music shops: 
next it traverses the whole continent, sometimes in 
native simplicity and sometimes in the guise of 
unspeakably ludicrous translations. In the furthest 
colonies, among the sheep-farms and gold-beds of 
Australia, in the warehouses of Chinese merchants, 
under the shadow of ruined Mohammedan mosques 
and Hindoo temples, in the forts of fur-hunters north 
of the Great Lakes, in the cuttings of the Panama 
railway, and in the sunny streets and squares of 
Brazilian towns and villages, the sorrows and joys 
of Eosa, My Mary Anne, Buffalo Girls, and Uncle 
Ned are whistled, sung, and shouted with unimpaired 
interest, in every tone and every dialect. In Brazil 
they are as popular as in the Minories. “ Eosa d’ 
Alabama,” and “ Senhoritas de Buffalo,” in the 
polite and sonorous Portuguese tongue, are made, 
regardless of prosody or metre, to fit the old accus¬ 
tomed melodies. Mr. Fletcher expatiates with pardon¬ 
able pride on this universal popularity of his nation’s 
most national product. At one o’clock in the morn¬ 
ing, from the top of a Charing Cross omnibus, he 
heard “Susannah don’t you cry” from the lusty 
throats of a dozen young Britons ; passing over the 
Gloria Hill behind Eio de Janeiro, the same welcome 
notes greeted his ear from a Brazilian cottage ; and, 
sitting at midnight among the ruins of Terracina, the 
ancient Auxar, meditating on the past glories of the 
Etruscan and Eoman empires, and on the great 
apostle who 1800 years before had lodged at the 
neighbouring “Three Taverns,” the sorrowful and 
affecting legend of “ Uncle Ned,” who “ had no wool 
on the top of his head,” awoke the stillness of the 
night with barely appropriate pathos. 

p 2 


212 


BRAZIL. 


It is time to close this sketch of the social condition 
of Brazil. We may gather from this and the pre¬ 
ceding chapter the two facts—that the people are 
eminently rich and comfortable, and eminently god¬ 
less. The evils naturally consequent upon the latter 
have not grown yet to any alarming height, simply 
because of the former. The people have not been 
tempted yet, they are so rich, so quiet and free. The 
whole revenue of the empire arises from the customs; 
and trade increases with such marvellous rapidity, 
that the expenditure cannot keep up with the income. 
Taxation, that millstone round the necks of ambitious 
nations and their governments, is no burden in 
Brazil. No neighbouring hostile states alarm her 
quiet and comfortable ease. “ Millions and millions 
of acres,” one writes, “ of the richest soil in the 
world remain unappropriated, notwithstanding the 
utter carelessness with which the richest and most 
valuable portions of the public domain have hitherto 
been yielded to the ownership of whosoever might 
incline to take possession of it.” No internal tyranny 
vexes her. Her sovereign conscientiously adheres 
to the principles of reasonable freedom: he is proud 
and fond of his people, and they are proud and fond 
of him. It is difficult for an Englishman in his 
crowded little island, saddled with a debt three years 
interest of which would crush pretty nearly any 
other nation—with every path, not only to eminence, 
but even to daily bread, choked with a crowd of 
eager competitors, struggling for a livelihood—to 
conceive of a country where land that hardly needs 
cultivation can be had, not for the asking, but for 
the taking; where income-tax was never heard of; 
where Jacob’s moderate desires, “bread to eat and 


INTERNAL CONDITION. 


213 


raiment to put on,” can be obtained for what seems 
to him the next thing to nothing; where a fraction 
of the labour he undergoes in his own cold and misty 
land would raise him to affluence; where the one 
thing wanted is men—hands to labour and heads to 
think. But he need not be discontented. Apart 
from the question whether the necessity of vigorous 
and almost unrewarded self-denial and exertion is 
not of itself productive of much benefit, there are 
many things yet lacking in this western land of pro¬ 
mise, in the absence of which it is no place for him 
to envy. It is an ungodly land ; it is an idle land ; 
it is an immoral land ; and it is an ignorant land. 
A distinguished Brazilian statesman said this : “A 
naiTOw strip on the coast is all that enjoys the bene¬ 
fits of civilization, while in the interior, our people 
are still, to a great degree, enveloped in barbarism. 
We have been unable to do anything, and nothing 
can be accomplished without the aid of a moral and 
intelligent clergy.” 

Madame Pfeiffer, in the work above referred to, 
shocked at the sufferings undergone by the German 
settlers in Brazil, thinks it right to give others a 
solemn warning against rash emigration. Still, it 
should be remembered that it was written thirteen 
years ago, and by one not a little inclined to judge 
hardly and regard gloomily the things she saw in her 
travels. With this qualification, her words, as those 
of a trustworthy eye-witness, are worth quoting. 

“ In conclusion, I beg leave to address a few words 
to those of my countrymen who think of leaving 
their native land, to seek their fortune on the 
distant coast of Brazil—a few words which I could 


214 


BRAZIL. 


desire to see as far spread and as well known as 
possible. 

“ There are people in Europe not a whit better 
than the African slave-dealers, and such people are 
those who delude poor people with exaggerated 
accounts of the richness of America and her beautiful 
territories, of the over abundance of the products of 
the soil, and the lack of hands to take advantage of 
them. These people, however, care but little about 
the poor dupes; their object is to freight the vessels 
belonging to them, and to effect this, they take from 
their deluded victim the last penny he possesses. 

“During my stay here, several vessels arrived 
with unfortunate emigrants of this description : the 
government had not sent for them, and therefore 
would afford them no relief ; money they had none, 
and consequently could not purchase land; neither 
could they find employment in working on the plan¬ 
tations, as no one will engage Europeans for this 
purpose, because, being unused to the warm climate, 
they would soon succumb beneath the work. The 
unhappy wretches had thus no resource left; they 
were obliged to beg about the town, and in the end 
were fain to content themselves with the most miser¬ 
able occupations. A different fate awaits those who 
are sent for by the Brazilian government to cultivate 
the land or colonize the country: these persons 
receive a piece of uncleared ground, with provisions 
and other help; but if they come over without any 
money at all, even their lot is no enviable one. 
Want, hunger, and sickness destroy most of them; 
and but a very small number succeed, by unceasing 
activity and an iron constitution, in gaining a better 


THE RIGHT SOURCE OF PROSPERITY. 


215 


means of livelihood than what they left behind them 
in their native land. Those only who exercise some 
trade find speedy employment, and an easy com¬ 
petency ; but even this will, in all probability, soon 
be otherwise, for great numbers are pouring in every 
year; and latterly the negroes themselves have been, 
and are still being more frequently taught every 
kind of trade. 

“ Let every one, therefore, obtain trustworthy 
information before leaving his native land; let him 
weigh calmly and deliberately the step he is about to 
take, and not allow himself to be carried away by 
deceptive hopes. The poor creature’s misery on 
being undeceived is so much the more dreadful, 
because he does not learn the truth till too late— 
until he has already fallen a victim to poverty and 
want.” 

Madame Pfeiffer’s warning is doubtless true to 
some extent. Still it seems certain that industrious 
emigrants may find Brazil a good field. It is more 
and more opening to the influences of freedom and 
intellectual light. Freedom and intellectual light, 
indeed, will, alone, do little for the real or permanent 
good of a people. Men need a deeper spring than 
the mere liberty to do and say as they list, or the 
heaping up of head-knowledge, for that tone of 
thought and feeling which can make them better, 
purer, and braver, even outwardly. Much more do 
they need it for the individual change that converts 
the self-indulgent, fallen and falling man, into the 
self-denying, growing saint, who never gives up his 
struggle, but even if he falls rises again with his face 
the right way. That spring, that influence must be 


216 


BRAZIL. 


found, if found at all it be, in the word of God. 
From its wide distribution only can we hope for any 
extended knowledge of the gospel, or faith in the 
Saviour, or for any marked operation of the Holy 
Spirit. Where the Bible is read and loved, there, all 
experience shows, the love of God, the faith of Jesus, 
are flourishing, and souls are being brought home to 
their one Shepherd and Bishop. In Brazil, as has 
been stated, there are most cheering signs that this 
greatest of all blessings may be reasonably hoped for 
among her intelligent and quick-feeling people. 
Surely it should be the earnest desire and effort of 
the children of God to supply, if a favourable oppor¬ 
tunity offer, those Holy Scriptures in which they not 
only think, but know from blessed experience, that 
they have eternal life. But let us never forget, in 
mourning over the present and hoping for the future 
with regard to other nations and other people, our 
own equal need. It is not endeavour for others, 
however earnest and self-denying, that will save us. 
Truly, watering others is a most sure and blessed 
means of ourselves being watered by the great Keeper 
of his vineyard. But there is only one Mediator 
between God and man; not our good works, not our 
holiness, not our faith, but “ the man Christ Jesus.” 
Are we believing that he loves us, that he has borne 
our sins, and carried our sorrows? Have we given 
ourselves to him body and soul, to do and suffer all 
his will ’ Is he to us the dearest, the most patient, 
tender, faithful friend we have ? Is it, in our heart 
of hearts, our keenest wish and daily prayer to 
be his now and for ever, to be conformed to his 
image in all things; not only in the great, but in the 


DIVINE OPERATIONS. 


217 


lesser matters of life—those little troubles, little 
temptations, little cares and anxieties, that are by no 
means small in bis sight? If not, we can hope 
for no fruit from any work we profess to do for 
him. But if it be so with us, we shall indeed 
labour patiently and earnestly, that other souls 
may share our hope, and, for ourselves, that, hav¬ 
ing preached to others, we may not ourselves he 
castaways. 

We know little,—oh how little!—of the patient, 
watchful discipline whereby the great Architect is 
fitting the stones for his glorious temple. No sound 
of axe or hammer is heard where it is building. Here , 
in the noisy dusty quarry goes on the work. Here, 
the rough hard stone is shaped and chipped and 
fashioned with the wise and skilful strokes of the 
chisel—very sharp, some of them. Here, the polished 
stones are finished; and here, the useless rubbish is 
laid aside. Men and brethren who read this,—are 
we living stones, or rubbish ? 

One word more. Let none stagger at the thought 
of vast countries and populous nations lying in the 
darkness of heathendom, or, like Brazil, in that half 
light that seems only to show how great is their 
darkness. It is not for us to pry too deeply into the 
ways of God : “ I will lead the blind by a way that 
they know not, and by paths that they have not 
known. I will make crooked things straight before 
them, and rough places plain. This will I do unto 
them, and not forsake them.” Who can tell how 
many of his own God has even in this dark land, who 
have not bowed the knee to Baal, who, in much 
blindness and ignorance, are yet feeling after him, if 


218 


BRAZIL. 


haply they may find him, and are resting, sin and all, 
on the perfect work of the Eedeemer ? 

But this is for us: to work in faith and patience, for 
the love of him who has so loved us ; to look forward 
with hope, nay with assured confidence, to that time, 
when the knowledge of the glory of God shall indeed 
cover the earth as the waters cover the sea; and 
most of all, with unswerving energy and self-morti¬ 
fying toil, to keep ourselves pure, yea unspotted even, 
from the world. 


( 219 ) 


CHAPTER VII. 

NATURAL PRODUCTIONS OF BRAZIL. 


Manioc—Its preparation and use—Palms—Euterpe Edulis — Cocoa-palms — 
Plantains — Bananas —Oranges—Pot-tree—Brazil-nuts—Cocoa—Tea—Coffee 
—Pine-apples—Grenadlllas — Mango — Ochre — Inga — Alligator-pear—Cus¬ 
tard-apple—Creepers and Orchidacere—Wourali poison arrows and blowing- 
cane—Fish and farinha—Perieca—Tambaki—Cow-fish—A manitus fruit— 
Indian seine—Turtles—Egg-butter—Anaconda serpents—The leper and the 
rattlesnake — Electrical eel —Toads — Scorpions —Iguana— Mosquitoes and 
sand-flies—Moqueens—Chigoes—Bees—Ants—Ants excommunicated—Ant- 
eaters—Peccaries—Battle of the pigs—Paca—Capybara—Agouti—Armadillo 
—Yampire-bats—Tigers—Tapir—Sloth—Monkeys — Guaribas, or Howling- 
monkeys—Spider-monkeys—Lemurs—Marmosets—Harpy eagle—Caracara— 
Toucan Chatterers—Campanero—Umbrella bird—Colours of birds in Brazil— 
Victoria Regia — Jacana — Boatbili—Spoonbill—Parrots and macaws—The 
parrot university—Humming-birds. 


Having dealt with the history, the religion, and the 
social state of Brazil, we come to the country itself, 
its productions, and various denizens of earth, air, and 
water. 

And first the eatables. There are certain philoso¬ 
phers who trace both the history and nature of 
peoples to what they live on. Not very wisely, 
perhaps, they find the sources of English character in 
beef and ale ; of American in Indian corn, pork, and 
“liquors;” of French in frogs and eau sucree; of 
German in sausage, weak beer, and tobacco; of 
Italian in macaroni; of Tartar in horse-flesh and 
mare’s-milk,—and so forth. 

Without at all endorsing such speculations as these, 
it is at least interesting to notice national food, as 
prepared and adapted by the beneficent Creator for 
the inhabitants of different regions and climates. 


220 


BRAZIL. 


The chief staple of Brazil is farinha, the flour of the 
manioc root. It enters into the composition of nearly 
all dishes and even drinks, and is as indispensable as 
rice to a Hindoo or potatoes to an Irishman. The 
botanical name of the plant is Jatropha Manihot , L .; 
known in the West Indies as cassava. It has a tall, 
slender stalk, divided into short joints, each one of 
which, when set in the ground, will grow into a 
separate plant. The leaves are palmated, with six or 
seven lobes. The tubers are a foot or more in length, 
and shaped much like sweet potatoes. 

From the earliest times of which we have any 
authentic information, this vegetable was the universal 
food of the country. “If Ceres,” says Southey, 
“ deserved a place in the mythology of Greece, far 
more might the deification of that person have been 
expected who instructed his fellows in the use of 
mandioc.” It is difficult to conceive how savages 
could have discovered that such a poisonous plant 
could be made into wholesome food. Their method 
of preparation was to scrape the root to a pulp with 
oyster-shells, or to rasp it down with a rough instru¬ 
ment made of sharp stones set in a piece of bark. 
They then powdered the pulp with stones, carefully 
squeezed the juice out, and dried it by fire. The 
occupation was considered very unwholesome, and 
the slaves whose business it was took the flowers of 
a plant called nhambi , and the root of another called 
uracu , in their food, “to strengthen the heart and 
stomach.” 

The Portuguese employed mills and presses, and 
carried on the squeezing in cellars, and places where 
accidental harm was least likely to happen. At 
present, the process is to peel the roots, and grate 


CASSAVA AND TAPIOCA. 


221 


them on stones. The mass is then placed in a slender 
bag of rattan, six feet long, to which, when hung up 
by one end, a heavy stone is tied. The gradual 
elongation of the bag compresses the sides, and the 
poisonous and highly volatile juice is squeezed through 
them. It is then dried in large iron pans, being 
constantly stirred. When finished, the pulp or flour 
is white or brown, according to the care taken in the 
drying. It looks something like dried bread-crumbs. 
It is packed in loose baskets lined with palm-leaves, 
an alquies , or measure of eighty pounds, at a time. 

The juice being carefully pressed out, the fecula 
or flour, prepared by drying on hot plates, becomes 
granular, and is commonly known as tapioca. 

There were terrible stories about it, like those of 
the upas-tree, which have been dissipated by modern 
inquiries. Some doubt if the juice, though un¬ 
doubtedly unwholesome, can be properly called 
poisonous at all. It used to be said, that when pre¬ 
pared in dark cellars, this deadly juice produced a 
white insect still more deadly, which was not unfre- 
quently used by wives to poison their husbands, and 
slaves their masters. It is still said that the juice 
will eat away proud flesh. A poultice of the mashed 
root was considered excellent for imposthumes, and 
for some poisons, and for the bite of some snakes it 
was held to be a sovereign antidote. It was also 
used to cleanse iron. 

The leaves are innocent, and often eaten. The 
juice itself may be made innocent by boiling, and 
fermented into vinegar, or boiled to a thick consist¬ 
ence, when it becomes as sweet as honey. 

It is impossible to keep the raw root for three 
days; and the least wet spoils the flour, when it is 


222 


BRAZIL. 


exceedingly unwholesome. Among the natives, if 
the roots were wished to be kept, they were sliced in 
water, and roasted before a fire. When wanted for 
use, they were grated, and the powder beaten up with 
water into a thick cream. Another way of preserving 
it was to soak the root till it was putrid, then smoke- 
dry it, and pound it into a meal. The most delicate 
preparation was to press it through a sieve, and 
immediately bake it. It then granulated rapidly. 

The natives and negroes live chiefly upon this 
flour. They eat vast quantities of it, and in a way 
that utterly baffles all strangers, taking it up between 
their fingers, and tossing it into their mouths so dex¬ 
terously, that hardly a grain is lost. Europeans try 
this sometimes, it looks so easy: of course they 
only succeed in powdering their hair and clothes, 
and filling their necks and eyes and nose with the 
fine flour, and ever afterwards humbly adhere to the 
spoon. 

The Indians used to make, and in some districts 
still make, an intoxicating liquor out of it in a some¬ 
what repulsive manner. The roots are sliced, boiled 
soft, and put to cool. The young women (men will 
not do, say the epicures) set to work and chew them, 
returning the results into a vessel of water. This, 
when full, is boiled again, and stirred the whole 
time : huge earthen jars are filled with the liquid, 
and buried up to the middle in the floor of the house, 
being closely stopped. Fermentation takes place in 
about two or three days, and then the invitations are 
issued for the carousal. Dr. Lery describes one he 
saw, that lasted three days and three nights. The 
women kindled fires round the jars, and served out 
the fluid warm in half-gourds. The men came round 


EFFECTS OF FAKINHA. 


223 


from house to house, dancing and singing, and emp¬ 
tied their gourd-cups at one draught. They never 
ate while they were thus drinking to intoxication, 
but drank on so long as a drop of liquor remained ; 
and, when they had exhausted the supply at one 
house, they went to another, till they had finished all 
the village. 

There is another sort of manioc, called the aipim 
(Manihot aipim ), or sweet cassava, distinguished from 
the other by a tough ligneous cord, running through 
the centre, of which the bitter cassava is destitute. 
It is commoner than the bitter, and has no poisonous 
qualities. The root itself is boiled, or roasted, 
and is little, if at all, inferior to the potatoe or 
chestnut. 

The exclusive use of farinha as food sometimes 
causes the only malformation to which the lower 
class of whites in this healthy country, or the blacks 
and Indians, seem to be subject, namely, an enlarge¬ 
ment of the body, almost like dropsy. Children 
seem most subject to this, or at least they show it 
most, being generally, whatever their rank in life, 
utterly without clothing, except in the cities. Mr. 
Edwards mentions seeing the eldest son of the gover¬ 
nor at the Barra of the Bio Negro, in full costume, 
consisting of a cane and a pair of shoes. The result 
of this neglect is a good deal of sun-burning, so that 
the little white gentlemen and ladies are nearly as 
dark as the little black servants who attend them. 
With not a little dirt, they enjoy perfect health, and 
have much beauty of form and feature, when the 
farinha has not the effect above mentioned. No one 
ever hears a child cry in Brazil, it is said. In the 
cities, of course, the young people are obliged to 


224 


BRAZIL. 


submit to some investiture—if they are of the better 
classes, that is to say; but in the country and vil¬ 
lages off go the troublesome garments. 

Next to the manioc, perhaps, should be ranked the 
various palm-fruits. The most delicious of these is 
the product of the Euterpe edulis , or edible palm, com¬ 
monly called assai. It grows from thirty to forty 
feet high, with a stem scarcely larger than a man’s 
arm. It is generally straight, but occasionally 
shoots far above the forest in a graceful curve. The 
leaves are long and heavy, and cleft, as it were, into 
ribbons. A. sort of spathe or sheath sprouts below the 
leaves, containing two or three young shoots, covered 
with a sort of web, like woven bark. When this 
falls off, the stalk is exposed covered thickly with 
green berries, about the size of grapes. When ripe, 
these turn purple, and crowds of birds flock to de¬ 
vour them. The fruit has a thick skin, then a thin 
pulp, and then a stone. Warm water is used to 
loosen the skin, and the berries are rolled together in 
a large vessel. The stones and skins are strained off, 
and a thick purple cream is left. Sugar and the in¬ 
variable farinha are added. Strangers dislike it at 
first, but it soon becomes a necessary of life. 

Cocoa palms are very abundant in the northern 
provinces, and, as everywhere, are beautiful objects, 
towering above the other trees, with their coronal of 
long feathery leaves covering the thick cluster of 
nuts. These are generally, in Brazil, eaten young 
before they get hard. 

Plantains and bananas are two other fruits, which 
are, as in the West Indies, very popular. They are 
very like one another, except that the plantain is 
about twice the size of the banana. The trees are of a 


FRUITS AND VEGETABLES. 


225 


graceful form, with leaves five or six feet long, and 
tw<5 broad, drooping round the stem. The fruit hangs 
from a stalk in clusters; it is usually cut green, and 
allowed to ripen in the shade. Plantains are cut in 
slices, and fried in fat, and also occasionally roasted 
like apples on the fire. Bananas are eaten raw; no 
house in the country, from the senhor’s villa to the 
Indian hut, is without its banana tree. It grows 
easily from suckers, and its yield is something of 
which the inhabitants of temperate zones have no idea. 
It is, according to Humboldt, 133 times as prolific as 
wheat, and forty-four times as prolific as potatoes. 

Plantains, with rice, and a sort of squash or 
pumpkin, called juruma, take the place of the potato, 
which is hardly ever seen. 

Brazil is indeed the very land of fruits. Every 
tropical and very numerous other fruits grow there 
in a perfection unequalled anywhere else. Orange- 
trees are everywhere, and the oranges on each tree are 
innumerable, seeming each better and larger than the 
last. They are no luxury, but a simple necessity. 
A gentleman who told Mr. Edwards that he always 
settled his breakfast with a dozen oranges, fairly 
describes the custom of the country. Lemons, limes, 
shaddocks, forbidden fruits, and every other of the 
many species of the orange tribe, are as common as 
hawthorn or dog-roses in England. 

The trees of all sizes, shapes, and kinds, with all 
manner of unknown names, that bear eatable fruits, 
through those vast and unexplored forests, or round 
the little farms or large plantations that nestle in 
their green borders, are almost past counting, far 
past specifying or describing in a book like this. 
Let a few suffice. 

Q 


226 


BRAZIL. 


There is one, highly approved of by monkeys and 
macaws, that is named scientifically the Lecythis 
ollaria , but in ordinary speech, the pot-tree. Fruit as 
large as a child’s head, and almost as hard as cocoa- 
nuts, hang from its branches. When ripe, a sort of 
door opens at the bottom, and the nuts called sapucaya 
nuts prepare to fall out, if the many greedy pawg 
and bills outside will let them. They are very 
small, and very oily. The capsules are made into 
pretty carved vases and bowls. 



SAPUCAYA PLANT. 


Very like this, but far more valuable, is the Berth- 
olitia excelsa, the parent tree of the well-known Brazil 
nuts, called by the natives castanhas, chestnuts. It 
well deserves the adjective excelsa, reaching commonly 
a hundred feet in height, and two or three in diameter. 
All over its branches hang the fruit as large as cocoa- 
nuts. They are so hard that very few denizens of 
the woods can get at them. The guaribas, or howl¬ 
ing monkeys, manage them, by violently striking them 


BRAZIL-NUTS AND CACAO. 


227 


on tlie hard knobs of branches, or large stones. One 
of these gentlemen was watched during his opera¬ 
tions. Sitting on a branch, he pounded away at the 
nut, might and main, switching about his tail in a 
fever of excitement. In a paroxysm of energy, he 
brought down the nut with tremendous force on the 
tip of his tail. Down dropped the nut, and away 
flew the monkey, howling as he had never howled 
before, and utterly disproving Goldsmith’s assertion, 
that the end of a monkey’s tail was so distant from 
the centre of circulation as to be insensible. 

The shell containing the castanhas requires all the 
monkey’s strength, for it is half an inch thick, and 
almost as tough and hard as wrought iron. Inside 
lie the triangular nuts, which we are accustomed to 
see sold in pennyworths, packed so neatly, that, once 
disturb them, and no human skill can get them back 
again, as they were before, any more than humpty 
dumpty. W hen fresh, which they never are when 
we get them, they are like cocoa-nut, and their white 
oily juice is a very good substitute for milk in coffee : 
it soon, however, turns to a rancid and strong fla¬ 
voured oil. They are largely exported for the manu¬ 
facture of composite candles. 

Another peculiarly Brazilian production is the 
cacao, or cocoa, from which chocolate and cocoa are 
made. It comes chiefly from one vast tract of coun¬ 
try on the banks of the Amazon. Edwards writes 
concerning the cacao of Para: “The cacao-trees are 
low, not rising above fifteen or twenty feet, and are 
distinguishable from a distance by the yellowish-green 
pf their leaves, so different from aught else around 
them. They are planted at intervals of about twelve 
feet, and, at first, are protected from the sun’s fierce- 


228 


BRAZIL. 


ness by banana palms, which, with their broad leaves, 
form a complete shelter. Three years after planting, 
the trees yield, and thereafter require little attention, 



THE CACAO. 


or, rather, receive none. From an idea that the sun 
is injurious to the berry, the tree-tops are suffered to 
mat together until the whole becomes dense as thatch- 
work. The sun never penetrates this, and the 
ground below is constantly wet. The trunk of the 
tree grows irregularly, without beauty, although 
perhaps by careful training it might be made as 
graceful as an apple-tree. The leaf is thin, much 
resembling our beech, excepting that it is smooth- 
edged. The flower is very small, and the berry 
grows directly from the trunk or branches. It is 
eight inches in length, five in diameter, and shaped 
much like a rounded double cone. "When ripe, it 
turns from light green to a deep yellow, and at that 
time ornaments the tree finely. Within the berry is 


CACAO CULTURE. 


229 


a white acid pulp, and embedded in this are from 
thirty to forty seeds, an inch in length, narrow, and flat. 
The pulp makes a deliciously refreshing drink, called 
cacao wine. The seeds are the cacao of commerce. 
When the berries are ripe, they are collected in great- 
piles near the house, are cut open with a tresado (a 
jack-knife used for cutting the vines and creepers in 
the forest), and the seeds, squeezed carelessly from 
the pulp, are spread on mats to dry in the sun. 
Before being half dried, they are loaded into canoes 
in bulk, and transmitted to Par&. Some of these 
vessels will carry 4000 arrobas of thirty-two pounds 
each ; and as if such a bulk of damp produce would 
not sufficiently spoil itself by its own steaming, 
during a twenty days’ voyage, the captains are in the 
habit of throwing upon it great quantities of water, 
to prevent its loss of weight. As might be expected, 
when arrived at Para, it is little more than a heap of 
mould, and it is then little wonder that Para cacao is 
considered the most inferior in foreign markets. 
Cacao is very little drunk throughout the province, 
and in the city we never saw it except at the cafes. 
It is a delicious drink when properly prepared; and 
one soon loses relish for that nasty compound known 
as chocolate, whose main ingredients are damaged rice 
and soap fat. The cacao-trees yield two crops annu¬ 
ally ; and, excepting in harvest time, the proprietors 
have nothing to do but lounge in their hammocks. 
Most of these people are in debt to the traders in 
Santarem, who trust them to an unlimited extent, 
taking a lien upon their crops. Sometimes the plan¬ 
tations are of vast extent; and one can walk for miles 
along the river, from one to the other, as freely as 
through an orchard. No doubt, a scientific cultivator 


230 


BRAZIL. 


could make the raising of cacao very profitable, and 
elevate its quality to that of Guayaquil.”* 

A still more important article of cultivation has 
been recently produced in Brazil, the Chinese tea- 
plant. Nowhere in the world has this shrub been so 
successfully raised away from its native hill sides as 
in Brazil. The Portuguese language is the only one 
that has preserved the original Chinese name chd,. 
Outside the vendas, or restaurants, the traveller in 
Brazil invariably sees the notice, “ Chd da India ” or 
“ Chd national.” The first means tea from China, the 
second, native tea. It was not till 1820 that the 
plant was first introduced. It was first cultivated in, 
and then extended by means of, the Botanical Garden 
and the royal farm at Santa Cruz, as has been already 
mentioned. The Count de Linhares, then the Portu¬ 
guese prime minister, in order to insure its proper 
cultivation and preparation, procured several hundred 
colonists from the interior of China, persons fully 
acquainted with the whole method of training and 
drying. 

This experiment was a failure. The Chinese 
colony, probably the first American colony of Asiatics, 
did not prosper, and dwindled away. Nor did they 
succeed in the work for which they had been ob¬ 
tained. Whether from ill will, or some differences in 
the soil and climate, they were unable to produce the 
best kinds of tea, and public expectation and excite¬ 
ment soon died away, and every one considered that 
Brazil tea plantations were not to be. 

Some Paulista planters, however, took it up, and, 
through much discouragement and many failures, have 
succeeded in making it a highly remunerative and 

* Edwards’ “ Voyage up the Amazon,” p. 105. 


TEA CULTIVATION. 


231 


flourishing branch of the national agriculture, though 
as yet quite in its infancy. There are now very large 
and productive plantations between Santis and Sao 
Paulo. 

The method of cultivation is very simple. The 
tree is raised from seed, which, preserved in brown 
sugar, can be transported to any part of the country. 
It is planted in beds, and then, like cabbages, trans¬ 
planted to the fields. The plants are set about five 
feet apart, and kept very clean by hoeing, or the 
plough. They are pruned to about four feet high, 
and in three years are considered ready for picking. 
Women and children pluck the leaves, and put them 
in baskets, and then roll them one by one. They are 
then dried in ovens, or large metal pans over a fire. 
When dried the tea is packed in boxes: the gather¬ 
ing goes on from March to July. Several million 
pounds are now annually prepared in Sao Paulo and 
Minas Geraes, and the culture is on the increase. 

The plant is hardy, far more so than coffee, which 
will not stand the least frost. But, comparing one 
with the other, the tea planters were, some years ago, 
much discouraged, saying that they must get sixteen 
cents a pound for it wholesale, before it would pay 
them as well as coffee. They have so improved the 
quality lately, though, that in 1855 they could get 
twenty cents a pound for the common tea, and forty 
for the best, which was the larger portion of every 
crop. The demand for it is yearly increasing, and 
much of the cha da India merely goes from the planta¬ 
tion to Rio, to be packed in Chinese boxes, and sold 
as Chinese tea. The tea-planters, who in 1846 were 
on the point of rooting up their shrubs, are now 
making large fortunes, and yearly taking in more land. 


232 


BRAZIL. 


The precedent of coffee would seem to point to a 
brilliant future for Brazil in the matter of tea. No 
more than fifty years ago, not a ship load of coffee 
had left Brazil. The revolution of Hayti almost de¬ 
stroyed its cultivation in St. Domingo; and now 
Brazil supplies two-thirds of all the coffee that is drunk 
in the world. A little disturbance in the tea-districts 
of China, and the same may easily take place with 
regard to tea. Brazil already supplies herself; her 
tea is equal to Chinese; and she has land enough to 
supply all the world with that, and many other things 
besides. 

A singular proof of the high quality of Brazilian 
tea is given by Mr. Fletcher: “A few years ago, Mr. 
John Budge, of the province of Sao Paulo, sent some 
tea from his plantation to his relatives in Bio de 
Janeiro. This was prepared very nicely, each sepa¬ 
rate leaf having been rolled by the slaves between the 
thumb and fore-finger, till it looked like small shot. 
It was thus invested with a foreign appearance, 
packed in small Chinese tea caddies, and shipped at 
Santes for the capital. When the caddies arrived, 
they were seized at the custom-house, as an attempt 
to defraud the revenue. It was on the other hand 
insisted that the boxes contained cha national , although, 
by some neglect, they did not appear upon the mani¬ 
fest. The parties to whom the tea had been sent 
offered to have it submitted to inspection. The cad¬ 
dies were opened, and the custom-house officials 
screamed with triumph, adding to their former sus¬ 
picions the evidence of their senses; for the sight, 
the taste, the smell of the nicely prepared tea, pro¬ 
claimed emphatically that it was cha da India , and 
that this was an attempt to defraud his majesty’s 


COFFEE AND FRUITS. 


233 


customs. It was not till letters were sent to Santes, 
and in reply that certificates of that provincial 
custom-house had been received, that the collectors 
at Eio were satisfied that there was no fraud, and 
that the province of Sao Paulo could produce as good 
tea as that brought round the Cape of Good Hope.” 

Coffee-planting is very general and very remunera¬ 
tive. The trees are planted about ten feet apart, and 
prevented from growing more than five feet high by 
constant pruning. The flowers are white, and orna¬ 
ment the plant beautifully. The leaves are about 
six inches in length, broad, and of a rich and glossy 
green. The berries grow on the under side of the 
limbs, and are at first green ; but when ripe, of a deep 
red, turning to brown and then nearly black. Within 
each are two kernels, surrounded with a sweet thin 
pulp. When the ripe berries are laid in the sun, 
this dries, and is removed by hand, or a mill. The 
trees bear in two or three years after planting. 

But to return to the fruits. Pine-apples are as 
common as turnips, and nineteen pounds is thought 
by rio means an extraordinary size and weight. The 
grenadilla, or passion flower, with its sweetish acid 
pods, climbs about everywhere. 

The mango and the ochee are two delicious fruits, 
and grow on two of the handsomest trees in the 
country. Both trees and fruits externally resemble 
each other closely. The leaves are long and narrow, 
and of a dark glossy green. When young they are of 
a variety of tints, dull white, pink, and red. Any 
one who has seen a Highland alder-wood in the late 
autumn, can form some idea how very lovely a mango- 
grove in the spring must be. The mango is of the 
size of a large lemon, and green. Within is a yellow 


234 


BRAZIL. 


pulp, surrounding a large stone. They are in Brazil 
by no means so popular as other fruits; the people 
have a fancy that they have something to do with 
causing leprosy. 

The ochee is like a mango, but smaller, and yellow. 

The inga is another favourite fruit, having a pod, a 
foot or more in length, and an inch thick. It contains 
a sweet white pulp, in which are imbedded long seeds. 
The paiTots are great connoisseurs in this fruit, voci¬ 
ferously discussing them when they are ripe, in my-, 
riads. When the inga-tree is in flower its masses of 
small white flowers are a great attraction to the 
humming-birds. 

Two other fruits among the many—too many for 
notice, must be specified, since, in the opinion of 
some, they are the finest in Brazil. The first is the 
mangaba, or alligator pear. This last absurd name 
is a corruption of one equally inexplicable, the 
avocado, or advocate pear. Neither kind (there are 
two) bears any resemblance to either an alligator or 
a barrister, whatever connexion satirical folk may see 
between these. The common kind is something like 
a green, crooked looking pumpkin, or cucumber. The 
better sort, the mangaba da cayenne, is shaped like a 
pear, and is of a purplish red. A large stone is in 
the middle, and the substance about it is soft, and 
somewhat like marrow. It is usually eaten in Brazil, 
with wine and sugar, but in the West Indies with 
pepper and salt, as a vegetable. It is said to be the 
only fruit that cats will eat. That they will eat it, there 
is no doubt whatever. It would be as safe to leave 
fresh fish and puss in a room alone together, as to let 
her have a chance at the alligator pears. 

The second is the biraba, or custard apple, like a 


FOREST TREES AND PLANTS. 


235 


thin, rough hag, as big as a cocoa-nut, full of custard, 
such as no cook ever yet achieved. It is eaten with 
a spoon, and is not easily forgotten. 

The beauty of the trees of the Brazilian forests is 
much enhanced by the innumerable vines, creepers, 
parasites, and orchids that shroud every trunk, and 
festoon every forest path. Orchidaceous plants of 
every kind are produced in incredible numbers and 
of species hitherto little, if at all known to botanists, 
in the rich forests and dark tropical atmosphere of 
the interior. Every now and then a package is sent 
over to England, and the beautiful public gardens at 
Kew, or some aristocratic greenhouse, or more rarely 
the middle passage of Covent Garden is surprisingly 
embellished by the exhibition of new varieties of 
flowers that grow downwards, exactly like butter¬ 
flies, of leaves that are like crawling insects, of ten¬ 
drils like crotchet work, plants that live on air, or 
grow out of a crack in a tree, or the wall. One of 
the prettiest and most valuable of the Brazilian para¬ 
sites, is the well known vanilla. It grows literally 
everywhere. In every clump of trees its little star- 
flower, and small graceful leaves, as well as its 
delicious fragrance, attract the wayfarer. And yet, 
strangely enough, the Brazilians import it in large 
quantities from Mexico and Central America via 
New York. 

The number of vegetable products that come out of 
a Brazilian forest is almost beyond belief: coffee, 
cotton, cocoa, tea, all sorts of fruits, all sorts of 
scents and spices, copaiva balsam in hollow logs of 
thousands of gallons each, sarsaparilla, quina, ton- 
quin beans, indigo, cotton, india-rubber, bread-fruit, 
the beautiful cashew-tree, with its monkey nuts, or 


236 


BRAZIL. 


the gay-coloured apples and plants, gums, seeds, and 
leaves of unknown names, and almost unknown value. 



THE VAXILLA* 


One production deserves particular notice, the 
terrible curare, or wourali poison. All that tra¬ 
vellers generally see of it, is a little earthen pot con¬ 
taining about a gill of thick, hard pitch. When dis¬ 
solved it is reddish-brown, and may be drunk harm¬ 
lessly : but as to its deadly effects when introduced 
immediately into the blood, there is no doubt what¬ 
ever. Chickens inoculated with it were paralysed in 
two or three minutes, and dead in ten. Rabbits fell 
in eight minutes, and a sheep in a still shorter time. 
M. Humboldt describes the preparation of the poison. 


WOURALI POISON—BOWS AND ARROWS. 


237 


The hark and outer wood of the stems of a creeping 
plant called the mavacure , found chiefly in Guiana, are 
scraped off and mashed, and slightly diluted with cold 
water. The fluid is then filtered through a funnel of 
palm-leaves. Waterton says that various kinds of ants, 
and the teeth of the more poisonous serpents are also 
employed. The filtered fluid is evaporated, and for 
smearing on arrows, the sticky juice of another plant, 
the kiracaguero , is mixed with it: its taste is not dis- 
agreeble, and it somewhat resembles opium in appear¬ 
ance. The symptoms in men that have been wounded 
by it are the same as those arising from the bites of 
serpents—vertigo, nausea, vomitings, and numbness 
near the wound. Salt or sugar, externally and inter¬ 
nally applied, are said to be antidotes. 

The Indians poison all their lances and arrows with 
it. Their artillery is very varied and beautifully or¬ 
namented, the bows and lances being of dark wood, 
highly finished. The bows are seven feet long, the 
lances ten, carved and decorated with tassels of ma¬ 
caw’s feathers. The arrows are of cane, with a hard 
wood spike for the point, on which the fatal poison is 
smeared. In one quiver-full which the writer saw, 
each arrow head was slightly spiral, and the feathers 
also spirally arranged, showing that the Indians were 
aware of the advantage gained by the axial revolution 
of a missile. Arrows for fishing are tipped with 
bamboo or bone* Those for peccary shooting have a 
pen-shaped point of bamboo. 

The chief native weapon, however, is the blowing 
cane; this is eight or ten feet long, tapering from two 
inches to less than an inch in diameter. The arrow 
is a splint of palm a foot long, delicately sharpened 
and poisoned, and wound round at the other end with 


238 


BRAZIL. 


tree-cotton, so as to fit the tube. An Indian will 
shoot with this as truly as with a rifle. Edwards 
mentions seeing his Indian attendant hit a turkey 
buzzard sitting on the housetop, at a distance of 
forty or fifty yards, fair in the breast, so that the 
bird fell dead behind the house. Another brought 
in seven harpy eagles shot in this way. Of course, 
it was the poison that destroyed the larger game. 

The lazy aborigines ingeniously avoid the trouble 
of making a fresh arrow for every poisoned point. 
They cut the point nearly through, so that the arrow 
is broken off by the animal or bird, and can be used 
again by tying on a fresh point. 

The next most important production to farinha, at 
least in the northern provinces, is undoubtedly fish, 
if the rank steaks of apparent bull-beef can be so 
called. The commonest is the periecu , and forms the 
main diet of three-fourths of the people in the pro¬ 
vinces of Para and Maranhao. The fish is very large, 
generally six feet long, often much larger, and very 
abundant. It has a large head and a wide mouth; 
and the scales, as big as dollars, are shaded with flesh 
colour. They are ordinarily taken with lances, are 
cut into slabs, salted and dried in the sun, and eaten 
with farinha. 

The lower classes of Par& allow themselves no 
change of diet, feeding on farinha and fish, and fish 
and farinha continually. To a stranger, the dark, 
high-coloured, high-scented, and high-flavoured slabs 
are most unpleasantly rank, and copious recourse to 
vinegar and oil is the only way in which he can eat 
them. When the oil, as very generally happens, 
is turtle oil, he is worse off than before. But before 
long, as is the case with all national dishes, they find 


PEIXE BOI—CmV-FISH. 


239 


favour in the sight of all who persevere, however 
disgusted they may have been at first. 

The tambaki is another fish of smaller size, and a 
more delicate flavour, resembling the black fish of 
the North American rivers. 

But the most extraordinary fishy phenomenon in 
the Brazilian rivers is the great fresh-water manitus 
or cow-fish, peixe boi in Portuguese, or vacca marina. 
It is not a fish at all, but a mammiferous animal, and 
doubtless it, or its cousin the sea-manitus, gave rise to 
the legends of the mermaid, or at least those told by 
Spanish navigators. The latter has long hair on its 
head, and a face bearing some dim resemblance to the 
human. The breasts are also situated as in the 
human female, and when rearing itself out of the 
water to gaze about, it presents a distant and hideous 
likeness of humanity. 

But the peixe boi, however you look at it, can 
hardly be likened to anything but itself. It varies 



PEIXE BOI, OR VACCA MARINA. 


in length from eight to eighteen feet, in thick¬ 
ness from two to three. Its eyes are hardly visible, 
and its ears like pin-holes. Its skin is scarcely to be 
penetrated by a musket ball; but aware, from dismal 
experience, how much it is sought for, it creeps 
timorously under the water, along the sides of the 





240 


BRAZIL. 


river, only showing its nose to breathe, or take a bite 
of the grass, or wild cane ( Cana brava), on which it 
lives; but the deadly lance, rifle ball, or harpoon is 
waiting for it, and its nose is quite a sufficient 
mark. 

Mr. Edwards thus describes one he saw just killed : 
“ Hurrying down, we were just in time to see the 
animal before he was cut up. He was about ten 
feet in length, and, as he lay upon his hack, between 
two and three feet in height, presented a conformation 
of body much like that of a ‘ fine old English gentle¬ 
man,’ whose two legs were developed into a broad 
flat tail. His back was covered sparsely with hairs, 
and his large muzzle was armed with short, stiff 
bristles. His smooth belly was bluish-black in colour, 
and much scarred by the bite of some inimical fish. 
There was nothing corresponding to legs; but a pair 
of flappers, as of a turtle, answered his purposes of 
locomotion. Both eyes and ears were very small, 
but the nostrils were an inch in diameter. The skin 
was a fourth of an inch in thickness, and covered a 
deep coating of blubber, the extracted oil of which is 
used as butter in cooking. Under the blubber was 
the meat, something between beef and pork in taste. 
These curious animals are in great numbers upon the 
Salimoen, and are to the people what periecu is below, 
being, like that fish, cut into slabs and salted. This 
form is, however, very offensive to a stranger; and 
no Indian will eat dried peixe boi, if he can get any¬ 
thing else. These animals will not venture on land, 
but live on the grass that lines the shores. While 
thus feeding they are lanced by the Indians, who 
know their places of resort, and watch their appear¬ 
ance. Although from their bulk several men might 


COW-FISH—MANITUS. 


241 


be puzzled to lift a cow-fish from the water when 
dead, yet one Indian will stow the largest in his 
montana (canoe) without assistance. The boat is 
sunk under the body, and, rising, the difficult feat is 
accomplished. 

“ The thick skin formerly served the Indians for 
shields, and their jawbones for hammers. 

“ We would gladly have bought this entire animal, 
for the purpose of preserving his skeleton and skin; 
but as meat was in request that day, we were obliged 
to be content with the head, which we bore off in 
triumph, and cleansed of its muscle. This skull is 
now in the possession of Dr. Morton, and we learn 
from him that the peixe boi of the Amazon is a dis¬ 
tinct species from the manitus sometimes seen in the 
districts adjacent to the Gulf of Mexico. 

“ Sometimes young cow-fishes are brought to Para; 
and we had there previously seen one in a cistern in 
the palace garden. It was fed on grass, and was 
very tame, seeming delighted to be handled. Captain 
Appleton, who has taken greater interest in the 
wonders of this province (Pard) than almost any 
other person who ever visited it, has twice succeeded 
in bringing young cow-fishes to New York; but they 
died soon after leaving his care.”* 

The manitus being little known, and seldom de¬ 
scribed in ordinary works on natural histoiy, it may 
not be amiss to quote the personal experience of 
another American gentleman who aided in the capture 
of one.f 

“ The favourite hour for feeding with the mani¬ 
tus is the early morning, during the dim gray 

* “ Voyage up the Amazon,” p. 149. 
f Bard’s “ Adventures on the Mosquito Shore.” 

R 


242 


BRAZIL. 


dawn. In consequence, I was called up to join the 
hunters not long after midnight. Two large pit-pans 
(canoes hollowed from the trunks of trees) each 
holding four or five men, were.put in requisition, 
and we paddled rapidly up the river, for several 
hours, to the top of a long reach where there were a 
number of low islands covered with grass, and where 
the banks were skirted by swampy savannahs. Here 
many bushes were cut, and thrown lightly over the 
boats so as to make them resemble floating trees: we 
waited patiently until the proper hour arrived, when 
the boats were cast loose from the shore, and we 
drifted down with the current. One man was placed 
in the stern with a paddle to steer; another, with a 
harpoon and line, crouched in the bow; while the 
rest, keeping their long keen lances clear of impedi¬ 
ments, knelt on the bottom. We glided down in 
perfect silence, one boat close to each bank. I kept 
my eyes open to the widest, and in the dim light got 
quite excited over a dozen logs or so, which I 
mistook for manitus. But the hunters made no sign, 
and we drifted on until I got impatient, and began 
to fear that our expedition might prove a failure. 
But of a sudden, when I least expected it, the man 
in the bow launched his harpoon. The movement 
was followed by a heavy plunge, and in an instant 
the boat swung round, head to the stream. Before 
I could fairly comprehend what was going on, the 
boughs were all thrown overboard, and the men 
stood with their long lances poised ready for instant 
use. We had run out a large part of the slack 
of the harpoon-line, which seemed to be fast to some 
immovable object. The bowsman, however, now 
began to gather it in, dragging up the boat slowly 


MANITUS HUNT. 


243 


against the current. Suddenly the manitus, for it 
was one, left his hold on the bottom, and started 
diagonally across the river, trailing us rapidly after 
him. This movement gradually brought him near 
the surface, as we could see by the commotion of the 
water. Down darted one of the lances, and under 
again went the manitus, now taking his course with 
the current, down the stream. The other boat 
meantime had come to our assistance, hovering in 
front of us, in order to fasten another harpoon the 
instant the victim should approach near enough to 
the surface. An opportunity soon offered, and he 
received the second harpoon and another lance at the 
same instant. All this time I had both barrels of 
my gun cocked, feverishly awaiting my chance for a 
shot. Soon the struggles of the animal became less 
violent, and he several times came involuntarily to 
the surface. I watched my chance when his broad 
head rose in sight, and discharged both barrels at a 
distance of thirty feet, startling the hunters quite as 
much as they had disconcerted me. It was a mercy 
that some of them did not get shot in the general 
scramble. 

“ The manitus, after receiving the second harpoon, 
became nearly helpless, and the Indians, apparently 
secure of their object, allowed the boats to drift 
with him quietly down the river. Occasionally 
he made an ineffectual attempt to dive to the 
bottom, dashing the water into foam in his efforts, 
but long before we reached the village he floated at 
the surface quite dead. The morning was bright 
and clear when we paddled ashore, where we found 
every inhabitant of the place clustering to meet us. 
When they saw that we had been successful, they 

r 2 


244 


BRAZIL. 


set up loud shouts, and clapped their hands with 
vigour, whence (as this was the only manifestation 
of excitement I had seen) I inferred that the capture 
of a manitus was regarded as something of a feat. 

“ Eopes were speedily attached to the dead animal, 
at which everybody seemed anxious to get a chance 
to pull, and it was dragged up the bank triumphantly, 
amid vehement shouts. I had been somewhat piqued 
at the contempt in which my gun had been held, and 
had been not a little ambitious of being able to say 
that I had killed a manitus; and as after my shot 
the animal had almost entirely ceased its struggles, 
I thought it possible I had given it the final coup, 
and might conscientiously get up a tolerable brag on 
my adventure when I returned home. It was with 
some anxiety, therefore, that I investigated its ugly 
head, only to find that my balls had hardly penetrated 
the skin, and that the hide of the manitus is proof 
against anything in the shape of fire-arms, except, 
perhaps, a Minie rifle. Lest, however, my story 
that the hide of the manitus is an inch thick and as 
tough as whalebone should not be credited, I had a 
strip of it cut off, which, when dried, became like horn, 
and a terror to dogs in all my subsequent rambles. 

“ But while my balls were thus impotent, I found 
that the lances of the Indians had literally gone 
through and through the manitus. The harpoons 
did not penetrate far, their purpose being simply 
to fasten the animal. The lances were the fatal 
instruments, and I afterwards saw a young Indian 
drive his completely through the trunk of a full- 
grown palm-tree. This variety of lance is called 
silak, and is greatly prized.” 

The Indian method of fishing is curious. When 


FISHING-NETS AND FISH. 


245 


they wish to make a large haul, or are weary of the 
lance and harpoon, they make a light matting of thin 
reeds, connected together by strings of grass. It is 
about six feet in width, and it is so light, that, 
though of considerable length, it can be easily trans¬ 
ported to any place. It is set when the tide is in, 
across the mouth of some marshy shallow creek, or 
igaripe. As the tide recedes, the fish that swarm into 
these inlets in search of food are left behind, wonder¬ 
ful to western eyes in their unearthly shapes and 
dazzling hues. One in particular, that rejoices 
in the learned name of Andbleps tetropthalmus , is 
commonly taken. It is called, as its Greek name 
signifies, the four-eyed fish: it always swims with 
its nose out of water. Though in reality each eye 
has only one set of internal machinery, it has two 
pupils, one of which the people say is for the air, and 
the other for the water. 

The Amazon and all its tributaries are singularly 
rich in fish of all kinds. Thousands of fresh-water 
porpoises, and even of the bona fide salt-water ones, 
swarm up to the very roots of the Andes. At the falls 
of the Rio Madeira is one of the wonderful sights 
of the world. The water is thick with untold 
crowds of fish of all kinds and sizes, from the cow- 
fish to the sardine, struggling to ascend. In the 
intervals of repose from their strenuous efforts, 
they devote their attention to eating one another, 
but without the least apparent effect in the way of 
making elbow or rather fin-room. If any one wants 
a fish he takes his paddle and hits the water any¬ 
where as hard as he can. He is sure soon to kill one 
or more, and, if no other devours it, to see it floating 
down, the underpart upwards. 


246 


BRAZIL. 


Among this crowd, eminent for size and dignified 
clumsiness, paddle the great Amazon turtles. All 
along the sea-beaches and river-bands of the empire 
this useful and ungainly reptile swarms. But it is 
in the king of rivers alone that they show to perfec¬ 
tion. At certain seasons they make their appearance 
in myriads, bursting with eggs. The noise of their 
shells striking against each other at night, as shoal 
after shoal rushes to the land to deposit them, is said 
to be audible for a great distance. Their work of 
egg-laying goes on from dusk till dawn. 

No sooner does the news of “ Tartarugas ” spread 
than from all the country round, even for hundreds 
of miles, the people flock as if to a fair. Even from 
the egg every man’s hand is against these poor 
Ishmaelites of reptiles. The eggs they lay during the 
night the people gather during the day, and pile them 
in heaps like the shells in an arsenal: while still fresh, 
they are thrown into large vessels, or, for want of 
anything better, canoes, and there broken with 
sticks, and trodden small with the feet. Water is 
poured on the mash, and. the oily part floats to the 
surface under the heat of the sun. It is then skimmed 
off with gourds and shells, slightly boiled and 
clarified, and finally poured into six gallon jars. 
Thus prepared, this strange production is known as 
turtle butter, a substance, it is believed, altogether 
peculiar to this part of the world. It always retains 
the taste of fish oil, but with vinegar is the indis¬ 
pensable accompaniment of the salt fish, and dried 
peixe boi above mentioned. 

The destruction that yearly goes on among the 
incipient turtles in this way is enormous, and the 
poor creatures have no defence, if, as the Indians 


TURTLE. 


247 


say, a turtle makes it a solemn point always to lay 
all her eggs on the same spot where she herself was 
hatched. In old times it is said that 250,000,000 
of turtle’s eggs were yearly destroyed in this way. 
If so the effects are beginning to he felt in the 
lessening yield of butter. An estimate can he 
formed of the number at present used. Six thousand 
pots of oil are yearly manufactured; each pot holds 
six gallons; each gallon requires 2000 eggs; conse¬ 
quently, at least 72,000,000 of eggs have been 
crushed in the year, to produce which it is calcu¬ 
lated that 480,000 turtles are requisite. 

But egg-hood is not the only dangerous time to the 
miserable turtle. It is a wonder he ever attains 
maturity. As soon as he splits his egg shell, or 
rather egg-skin, and in common with myriads of 
little friends and relatives begins his instinctive 
waddle to the water, new dangers beset his path. 
Alligators, with apparatus of teeth and jaw enough 
to dispose of an ox, wait for him; jaguars, in their 
search for his parents, swallow his young comrades 
by the mouthful. Ibises stalk deliberately about, 
picking up the poor little wretches as a turkey 
would pick up grains of corn. Eagles and buzzards 
swoop upon them And as they joyfully topple into 
their native element, huge fishes with greedy eyes 
and throats gulp them down as a boy would eat 
currants. No destroyer but man, however, has 
succeeded in perceptibly thinning their numbers. 

When matured in age and size, the turtle has only 
two of his old enemies to dread; the jaguar, cun- 
ningest of all South American beasts of prey, 
puts his paws on him, and scoops him out of his 
shell, in some inexplicable way, so cleanly that 


248 


BRAZIL. 


not an eatable shred of him is left. The fact is 
undoubted, and any one who has seen a cat get a 
canary-bird out of a cage hanging in a window, will 
at least allow it to be possible. And this great spotted 
cat shows more than feline acuteness. He can 
imitate the cry of every bird and beast. He knows 
where the poor cow-fishes feed, and pounces on them 
in their own element, and then drags them out 
though three times as big as himself. His artfullest 
trick is to fish in the river with his tail. He seats 
himself under some tree of ripe fruit that overhangs 
the bank, and lets the tip of his tail splash gently 
into the water. Up come the greedy fish and crabs, 
and he quietly jerks them out with his claws. But 
enough of him at present. 

The other enemy of the adult turtle is, of course, 
the great destroyer ; and from him he is hardly safe 
anywhere. If he takes a walk on shore, somebody 
lays hold of his hind leg, and turns him over on his 
back, to be kept, and killed at leisure. If he goes 
into a quiet lake or bay to sleep, some silent canoe 
paddles up, and a harpoon or poised lance is plunged 
into him under his elbow. If he betakes himself to 
the deep water, still watchful eyes are on him. It 
is no good to attack him there, for he is broad awake, 
and can swim faster than a canoe can paddle. It is 
no good to shoot straight at him as he comes to the 
surface to breathe, for bullet and arrow glance 
harmlessly off his coat of mail. But the Indian is a 
match for him; his keen eyes perceive the slight 
ripple, and the two nostrils slowly protruded, and 
he shoots an arrow up in the air with so accurate an 
aim that it falls perpendicularly on the poor turtle’s 
back, piercing through water and shell and ribs and 


TURTLE—-TORTOISE-SHELL. 


249 


everything into its very vitals. The head is hut 
loosely attached to the shaft, and a string rolled round 
the latter connects them. The shock loosens the 
junction, and down goes the turtle with the barb in 
him, leaving, nevertheless, the shaft floating on 
the surface. The Indian paddles to this float, and by 
the string tows his prize to land, or lifts him into his 
canoe. 

There are three kinds of turtles : the large green 
turtle is best known, and furnishes the various 
delicacies—green fat, callipash, callipee, and so forth 
—so well known to epicures. The hawksbill is 
smaller, and its flesh is not so good, hut its shell is 
the most valuable of all, being thick and beautifully 
coloured. What is called tortoise-shell is not, as is 
generally imagined, the bony covering of the turtle, 
but only the scales lying on it. These are thirteen 
in number, eight flat, and five a little curved. Of 
the flat ones four are large, being sometimes a foot 
long and seven inches broad, semi-transparent and 
elegantly coloured with white, red, yellow, and 
dark brown clouds. A large turtle will yield eight 
pounds of them. 

The method of obtaining the tortoise-shell is cruel 
in the extreme. When the turtle is caught, the fishers 
fasten him and cover his back with dry leaves or 
grass, to which they set fire; the heat makes the 
plates separate at their joints; a large knife is then 
carefully put under them flat-wise, and the laminae 
lifted from the back. Many turtles die under this 
cruel process, but not unfrequently they are caught 
again with a new shell. It is then all in one 
piece. 

The third kind of turtle is called the loggerhead, 


250 


BKAZIL. 


(Testudo caretta ), and is far larger than the hawks- 
bill. It is a good deal like the green turtle; but its 
head is larger, its shell is broader, and its colours 
brighter. It sometimes grows to a great size, reach¬ 
ing even a thousand or twelve hundred pounds; but 
its flesh is rank and coarse, and its shell too thin to 
use : it supplies, nevertheless, good oil. 

There are several other sorts of small turtles or 
terrapins, some very delicate, but they are not much 
sought after. The land-turtles or jabatis are sin¬ 
gularly delicious. 

The subject of turtle leads us naturally to that of 
reptiles in general: and first and foremost is pre¬ 
sented to the mind the image of the fearful anaconda, 
or Brazilian boa (Eunectes mecrinus ). This hideous 
and yet beautiful monster is by no means uncommon 
in the forests and on the banks of the rivers of Brazil; 
but in his own country people care very little for 
him. The sucuruju , as the Indians call it, is very 
frequently seen, while young, crawling tame about 
Brazilian gardens, or lying coiled up neatly in his 
basket, looking as innocent as a lamb. They are 
really useful, since they make havoc among the rats> 
only now and then substituting a duck or a fowl, 
when the regular food is scarce, or some sudden 
temptation overcomes them. But in his native 
solitudes the anaconda frequently attains the length 
of nearly thirty feet, and is then formidable to cattle 
and horses, it is said, and most undoubtedly to pigs. 
A huge fellow, twenty-two feet long, was caught with 
a lasso while asleep on an island near Para, some 
years ago, with much exultation. He had long lived 
near the farm, and had managed to swallow at 
different times forty pigs. The negroes lassoed him, 


ANACONDA, OR BRAZILIAN BOA. 


251 


and dragged him, coiling and writhing, towards the 
house. A surviving sow came to exult over her 
fallen foe, hut he suddenly coile’d his tail round her, 
and, regardless of his own desperate circumstances, 
would have gratified his ruling passion even in death, 
had not the whole posse of negroes precipitated 
themselves on him, screaming and laughing, and 
made him let go. 

No authentic instances are known of the anaconda 
attacking man, and the negroes and Indians do not 
care for the largest. Still as the patriarchs of the 
race can, beyond all dispute, dispose of a horse, a 
solitary man might not stand much chance. The 
writer was told, a short time ago, of a proof of the 
great strength of these creatures. A gentleman 
had had a small anaconda sent him as a present, not 
three feet long. He was exhibiting his prize to some 
friends, holding it at the full stretch of his arms 
by the head and tail. He suddenly felt his arms 
gradually drawn together, in spite of his utmost 
resistance. With a motion too quick to follow a coil 
was thrown round one hand, and again the contrac¬ 
tion drew his arms closer; another coil, and a fresh 
contraction; and before he could extricate himself, 
the little wretch had perfectly manacled him, and 
was squeezing his bones together with most painful 
energy. He was quite helpless, until the united 
efforts of his friends untwisted the living knot, and, 
with respectful awe, transferred it to its box and 
blanket. 

Mr. Cross, the keeper of the old zoological collec¬ 
tion in this country, had a narrow escape from a larger 
one. The serpent was casting its skin, and the scales 
of its eyes being loose made it half blind. Mr. Cross 


252 


BRAZIL. 


offered it a fowl, and, missing its aim, it seized him 
by the thumb. In an instant, with the velocity of 
lightning, coil after coil was thrown round his head, 
neck, and chest. One hand was providentially left 
free, and, almost instinctively he clutched the tail, 
which was waving in the air, searching for some point 
to seize, and pull the frightful knot tight. JIad it 
grasped a bar of the cage, the window-sill, or any 
stable comer or projection, the coils would have 
crept tighter and tighter, the strain of the terrible 
machinery would have been drawn closer and closer, 
till the bones snapped. Some of his men heard his 
suffocating gasps for help, and unwound the serpent, 
which was sick and weak. Mr. Cross never recovered 
this adventure, and, to the end of his life, said his 
most painful remembrance was the feeling of his ribs 
bending almost to cracking under the monster’s 
tightening clasp. 

The following is one of the latest authentic instances 
of the anaconda’s more wonderful powers of swallow¬ 
ing : “ Some weeks before our arrival at Sape, the 
favourite riding-horse of Senhor Lagoeira, which had 
been put out to pasture not far from the house, could 
not be found, although strict search was made for it 
all over the fazenda. Shortly after this one of his 
vaqueiros (herdsmen), in going through the wood by 
the side of a small stream, saw an enormous sucaruju 
suspended in the fork of a tree which hung over the 
water. It was dead, but had evidently been floated 
down the stream by a recent flood, and being in an 
inert state, it had not been able to extricate itself 
from the fork before the waters fell. It was dragged 
out to the open country by two horses, and was found 
to measure thirty-seven feet in length. On opening 


VARIOUS SNAKES. 


253 


it the bones of a horse in a somewhat broken condi¬ 
tion, and the flesh in a half-digested state, were found 
wdthin it: the bones of the head were uninjured. 
From these circumstances it was concluded that the 
boa had swallowed the horse entire.”* 

Other snakes in proportion to their size have equal 
or even superior powers. Our common snake, as 
thick as a thumb, will swallow a frog as large as a 
child’s fist. A rattlesnake of no large size has been 
killed with three large frogs in him; and a very 
slender South American snake, which lives in the 
roofs of houses, will swallow a bat whole which is 
three times his own thickness. Considering, there¬ 
fore, that all these gulp down their prey just as it is, 
there is not so much wonder in the feat just men¬ 
tioned, since the unlucky horse was well squeezed 
and lubricated before his being swallowed. 

The other serpents of Brazil, though numerous 
enough and some of them deadly, hardly catch the 
traveller’s attention. When he first takes a walk into 
a forest, he wears thick boots, and starts at every 
rustle; but very soon thin trowsers, and slippers, or 
even bare legs are found to be far more comfortable, 
and ordinary care sufficient to avoid snakes: hardly 
any instances occur of a bite, fewer still of death. A 
singular one, however, happened a few years ago. 
Some quack doctor pretended to have discovered that 
the elephantiasis, which is common in some parts of 
the south of Brazil, was the leprosy mentioned in 
history, as having been cured among the Greeks by 
the bite of a snake. He published several learned 
treatises on the subject, and a good deal of attention 
was attracted to his theory. An opportunity of test- 

• Edwards’ " Voyage up the Amazon.” 


254 


BRAZIL. 


ing it was soon found. An inmate of the noble hos¬ 
pital dos Lazaros in Kio, who had suffered from the 
disease for six years, resolved to submit to the experi¬ 
ment. A day was fixed, and several physicians and 
friends attended. A rattlesnake was brought in a cage, 
and the patient, confident and cheerful, introduced his 
hand; the serpent shrunk back, and refused to bite, 
merely licking the diseased member. It was not till 
the patient squeezed and tormented it that it bit him 
on the little finger. The disease had so destroyed 
sensation, that he was not at first aware he was 
bitten: a little blood oozed from the wound, and it 
swelled a little. The effect of the poison was evi¬ 
dently retarded bv the disease: but, alas! it was 
poison still, and in twenty-four hours the poor leper 
was dead. 

We must not pass without notice the peculiar 
reptile of South America, the electrical eel, or gym - 
notus. This singular animal is very common in 



THE ELECTRICAL EEL 


the more deserted pools and rivers of the interior, 
swarming in the mud in great numbers. Every one 


THE ELECTRICAL EEL-REPTILES. 255 

knows Sir Francis Head’s description of how the 
Indians take them by driving a herd of wild horses 
into the pool, and then, when the eels have exhausted 
their electrical power, catching them with a hook and 
line. They sometimes attain great size, even six 
feet in length, and five or six inches in diameter, and 
then are not only troublesome, but dangerous. Their 
power in the water is very great, and quite sufficient 
to stun and drown large animals. The negroes tease 
them till they are exhausted, and then take them. 
They are fishy and oily; and none but natives can eat 
them, at least without correctives to overpower the 
taste. Edwards mentions one he saw kept in a tub 
of rain water, “ swimming about with the grace of 
a water-king. This fellow was about four feet in 
length, and along his whole lower part extended a 
wide fin, by whose curvings he appeared to propel 
himself. We often amused our leisure in observing 
this eel, and in experimenting upon his electrical 
power. This did not seem to be concentrated in any 
peculiar part or organ; for, touch him where we 
would, the violence of the shock seemed the same, 
and equalled an ordinary shock from a machine. 
When very hungry, or particularly spiteful, he would 
transmit his power through the water to a consider¬ 
able distance. His usual food was crabs, and when 
these were thrown in to him, he swam towards them, 
stunned them by a touch of his head, and either 
caught them immediately, or allowed them to fall to 
the bottom of the tub to be devoured at leisure.”* 
There is no lack of reptiles in Brazil. Toads so 
abound that every nocturnal sound is attributed to 


Voyage up the Amazon,” p. 7. 


256 


BRAZIL. 


them. One poetical traveller, full of the bell-bird, 
records his disgust when, on inquiring of his boat¬ 
man with eager hope what a certain noise was, he 
was informed with compassionate contempt that it 
was a toad that was “gritando,” and that everything 
that made noises at night must be a toad. There are 
frogs that low like cattle, others that scream and 
whistle; and one noble fellow, called the blacksmith, 
too big for a man to enclose with both hands, that 
makes a sound exactly like the blow of a hammer on 
an anvil. 

Scorpions are very frequently discovered: they 
have all the natural love of the wicked and venom¬ 
ous for dark comers; and if you unwarily open a box 
or cupboard, the sudden apparition of a whole family 
of them, scuttling away in every direction, some of 
them unpleasantly near your fingers or toes, may 
very probably cause an undignified leap and outcry. 

(ii L 


In this hot country they sting most spitefully, and 
their sting is very far from a trifle. They abound in 
canoes and boats, and all manner of vessels, and it is 
quite as likely as not that you find some in your 
pockets if you are on board one, or, as Mr. Edwards 



THE IGUANA. 


257 


experienced, open a letter, and find a lively specimen 
in the envelope. 

One more, and we must take leave of the reptiles 
of Brazil; and that is a great favourite, since he is 
savoury and delicate to the taste—the iguana. These 
huge lizards are spitted and carried about the streets 
at Bio for sale. Strong-minded people have no objec¬ 
tion to the animal when alive, even as a pet, but 
most prefer him fricasseed. A lizard from three to 
five feet in length, with a large head and very short 
legs, is a trial to the courage of bold men sometimes. 
They are called chameleons in Brazil, and are some¬ 
times caught by shaking them out of a tree, when 
the persecutor plunges on the bewildered victim, and 
pins him head and tail. This last is a powerful 
weapon on the ground, the only one the poor iguana 
has. They are greenish in colour and spotted, with 
movable spines down the back : the whole skin is 
like delicate bead-work. A short account of a tame 
one may be interesting:— 

“ Pedro (the iguana),” writes his owner, “ gave 
me much amusement. From his close resemblance 
to the snake tribe, it was difficult for strangers to rid 
their minds of the impression that he was venomous. 
Such is not the case with iguanas : their only means 
of defence is their very powerful tail; and a sportsman 
told me that he has had a dog’s ribs laid bare by the 
stroke of an iguana’s tail. My poor pet, however, 
was not warlike, having been long in captivity; he 
was given to me as a ‘ Christmas-box ’ by a friend, and 
soon became tame enough to go at liberty. He was 
about three feet long, and subsisted on raw meat, 
milk, and bananas. He had a basket in my room, and 
when he felt the weather cool would take refuge 

s 


258 


BRAZIL 


between the mattresses of my bed. There in the 
morning he would be found in all possible comfort. 
One evening we missed him from his usual hiding- 
places, and reluctantly made up our minds he was 
lost; but on rising in the morning two inches of his 
tail hanging out of the pillow case, told where he had 
passed a snug night. My little Spanish poodle and 
he were sworn foes. The moment Chico made his 
appearance, he would dash forward to bite Pedro ; but 
Chico thought, with many others, that ‘ discretion 
is the better part of valour.’ So he made off from 
the iguana as fast as his funny legs could carry him; 
then Pedro waddled slowly back to the sunny spot 
on the floor, and closed his eyes for a nap. When 
the winter (a winter like the latter part of a northern 
May) began, he was nearly torpid, and remained 
without eating for four months. He would now 
and then sun himself, but soon returned to his 
blanket. 

“ I frequently took him out on my arm, and he 
was often specially invited; but I cannot say that 
he was much caressed. It was in vain that I expati¬ 
ated on his beautiful bead-like spots of black and 
white, on his bright jewel eyes, and elegant claws. 
They admired, but they kept their distance. I had a 
sort of malicious pleasure in putting him suddenly 
down at the feet of the stronger sex, and I have seen 
him elicit from naval officers more symptoms of terror 
than would have been drawn forth by an enemy’s 
broadside, or a lee-shore. But alas for the ‘ duration 
of lovely things !’ During the summer months he 
felt his old forest-spirit strong within him, and he 
often sallied forth in the beautiful paths of the Gloria. 
On one of these occasions he met a marauding French- 


MOSQUITOS AND SAND-FLIES. 


259 


man. Pedro, the caressed by me, and the feared by 
others, knew no terror. The ruffian struck him to 
the earth; it was in vain that a little daughter of 

consul B-, tried to save him by crying, “ II est a 

madameanother blow fractured his skull. My ser¬ 
vant ran up in time to save him from an ignominious 
stew-pan, but life was extinct. The assassin fled, 
and Rose came back with my poor pet’s corpse. On 
my return he was presented to view with his long 
forked tongue depending from his mouth. He was 
sent, wrapped in black crape, to a neighbour who 
delighted in fricasseed lizards, but who, having seen 
him petted and caressed, could not find appetite to 
eat him. Thus ended the career of poor Pedro, after 
a life of pleasant captivity ; and perhaps it might be 
said of him, as of many others, 4 he was more feared 
than loved.’ ” 

Though snakes, scorpions, and all manner of creep¬ 
ing things do abound in some parts of Brazil, they 
are not the pests. In many parts of the country, 
indeed, there are no insect nuisances to speak of, or 
that may not be avoided with ordinary care. But, 
where they do exist, the bloodthirsty mosquitos and 
sand-flies render life a burden. They laugh at nets : 
leather breeches, exasperated travellers tell us, are 
no defence; and, in their native marshes, they dis¬ 
play a vivacity and insatiable thirst that seem to 
aim at nothing short of picking the victim’s bones. 
Happily, ever}’- part of the country is not infested 
with them. One side of a river or bay will be 
quite free, while on the other the sleepy traveller 
will have to pass the night in pain and vexation, 
and wake with his face almost an undistinguishable 

s 2 


mass. 


260 


BBAZIL. 


There is a little abomination peculiar to Brazil, 
called garapatos, or moqueens. They are small red 
insects like spiders, that live in the grass, and attach 
themselves in numbers to the clothes of any passer by. 
Their presence is soon detected by an intolerable 
tickling. Each of the little villains buries himself 
in the skin, and produces a boil. Cattle, in dry 
seasons, have sometimes perished from the sores thus 
caused. Fortunately, the remedy is simple, and per¬ 
fectly efficacious. Water destroys them at once, and 
a good warm bath, with a rub over of rum, cures the 
disagreeable infliction forthwith. 

Chigoes, the little fleas that bury themselves, and 
make nests full of eggs under the skin or nails, are 
also troublesome. It soon becomes a habit with the 
sojourner in Brazil to look at his toes for these small 
colonists every night. The bag of eggs can be with¬ 
drawn with the point of a needle, and if not broken, 
no harm follows. 

Unlike the other parts of America, Brazil has a 
great number of bees, apparently indigenous. The 
“English flies,” as the North American Indians 
called these precursors of their own extinction, have 
not made good their ground in Brazil. Possibly the 
eighteen kinds already existing have successfully 
objected to the introduction of the stinging strangers. 
None of them sting; some make some sour honey, 
others bitter, and others rob their friends, though all 
are honey-makers. The big Brazilian beetle, justly 
called Hercules (see p. 261), is their great enemy. 

But the king of Brazilian insects is the ant. All 
other creatures get out of his way: when he makes 
war, no living thing dares interfere: all natural 
and artificial productions are his food: he will eat 


ANTS OF VARIOUS KINDS. 


261 


a coat, a tree, a carpet, a library, or a dead horse 
with the same appetite. He is of all shapes and 
sizes, from the little red fire-ant who, though 



HERCULES BEETLE. 


generally industriously minding his own business, can 
drive any animal half mad, to the huge black wood 
ant, that is the scavenger of the earth. Great armies 
are met not unfrequently in the forest paths two and 
three feet wide, and of unknown length, from whose 
course turn aside, or you will come to grief. 

There are two species, particularly, that are emi¬ 
nently military, and are irreconcilably hostile—a 
small black and small red one. They apparently 
agree at times to have a battle, and indicate the place; 
for they march in long columns to some open spot that 
is known in all the country round as an ant’s battle¬ 
field, and, deploying into line, fight as the Tranks 
fought at Chalons-sur-Mame, or the English at Mal- 
plaquet. The first ranks rush together, biting and 
stinging with such heedless ferocity that you may 
pick them up without their loosing their death-grip. 
These soon fall. File after file pours over their 
bodies, with a fearless desperation which no other 


262 


BRAZIL. 


animal in the world can surpass. The battle rages 
day after day, and night after night, till the whole 
air round is poisoned with formic acid, and the 
bodies of the slain lie in bushels in a great pyramid 
on the deadly field. It is one of the most astonishing 
sights on this wonderful earth to see these insects, in 
perfect military order, marching to certain death 
without one sign of flinching. “ If their size,” 
says Mr. Edwards, “ were proportioned to their 
courage, these battle-fields would mock earth’s 
bloodiest.” 

There is one morbidly industrious kind that is the 
dread of the proprietor of fruit-trees. They are 
called saubas, and live in underground nests, or 
rather catacombs. These devastators march in force 
to a tree—one half climbing up it, and the rest re¬ 
maining below. The climbers cut off every leaf, and 
those below shoulder them like umbrellas, and carry 
them home. The disproportion in size between the 
robber and his burden is something ludicrous to any 
one not personally interested. It is something 
like a man shouldering the monument, or walking 
off with an oak. 

In the morning, the unfortunate owner finds his 
tree stripped and dying, and knows that unless he 
can find the colony, and pour boiling water down, or 
smoke them to death, his trees will be treated in the 
same way one by one. 

There is a little white tree-ant, called cupim , who 
makes his nest on the branches. But he will live 
in a city quite contentedly, and when there, no one 
is more industrious in devouring books, with an 
occasional change to a lady’s dress, or a Brussels 
carpet, than he. If the house has clay walls only, 


TERMITES AND ANT-EATERS. 


263 


he will eat it up from roof-tree to foundations, with¬ 
out remorse. His big brother, the termite , or large 
white ant, is more common in country places, having 
a passion for building columnar residences of clay as 
big as houses. But he also is omnivorous. Many 
years ago the white ants got into sad trouble. At 
Maranhao, they so far forgot themselves as to eat up 
the altar cloth in the convent of S. Antonio, and 
to bring up and leave about pieces of the shrouds 
from the tombs underneath. The friars cited them 
formally for sacrilege in the ecclesiastical court, and 
they were cast with costs. About the same time a 
similar suit, with the like result, was brought against 
them at Avignon. Whereupon they were delivered 
over to Satan, and solemnly excommunicated from 
the Roman Catholic Apostolic church, and a sentence 
was recorded commanding them “ to remove, within 
three days, to a place assigned them in the centre of 
the earth.” It is canonically stated “ that the ants 
obeyed, and carried away all their young and all 
their stores.” Doubtless their present objectionable 
disposition may be traced to this terrible anathema; 
but in Brazil, at least, they have certainly come 
back from the centre of the earth. 

If they had not, two most worthy characters, 
the great and little myrraecophagas, or ant-eaters, 
would be hard put to it to find an honest livelihood. 
These poor fellows have obtained, in some unaccount¬ 
able way, in the eyes of the Indians and negroes a 
diabolical character. The little ant-eater, whose 
whole life is devoted to the persecution of the ex¬ 
communicated heretics of cupims, is most unjustifiably 
called, par excellence , “ the devil.” The popular belief 
is, that, if he is shut up in a tight box, he will dis- 


appear through the keyhole before morning; and 
ocular demonstration is barely sufficient to disprove 
this. His profession is carried on with considerable 
labour. He climbs the tree where the white ants 
have built them a nest, twists his tail round a branch, 
and cuts a hole with one of his long sharp claws, 
and introduces his long snout, and slender sticky 
tongue. The poor ants are swallowed by thousands, 
and make no effort to escape or resist, for their 
enemy’s skin and wool are too thick for even them 
to attack. 

The great ant-bear, and tamandua, are far more 
formidable enemies to the ants, and better able to 
defend themselves from their own foes than the little 
myrmecophaga. The great ant-bear is seven feet long, 
tail included, and possesses vast strength. It is 
stated, though this is questioned, that the jagtiar, even, 
does not dare to attack it, for it possesses ample means 
of defence. Eisingon its hind legs, it clasps its enemy 
with its short powerful arms and huge hooked claws 
with the force of a vice. Nothing can relax that iron 
grasp. Teeth and claws are of little avail against the 
thick wool and thicker skin. It is no difficulty to the 
ant-bear to go weeks without food; and in the fearful 
living prison, the rash victim starves and dies. The 
Indians dread them, and say they are all females, 
and that the male is the “ curupira,” or demon of 
the forest. They lasso them sometimes, or shoot 
them with poisoned arrows. When the ant bear is 
runningJiway, which he can do with considerable 
speed, in spite of the singular conformation of his' 
fore-feet, obliging him to walk on their outside edges, 
a pattering noise on the leaves makes him stop at 
once. Ants, it may be presumed, is the idea that 


ANT-BEAR.— PECCARIES. 


265 


takes possession of his mind, which, unable to retain 
more than one at a time, forgets the pursuer, and 
thus he falls a victim to his appetite. When asleep, 
the ant-bear lies on one side, coils himself up with 
its snout in its breast, and covers itself with its 
bushy tail. It is then so exactly like a bundle of 
hay, or dry grass, that, though lying on the roadside 
no one but a native would cast a second glance 
at it. 

“ Lying on the roadside ” is hardly an accurate 
expression. No ant-bear is so silly as to trust 
himself asleep qn the side of a road frequented by 



THE PECCART. 


mankind. The roads he travels along, and sleeps by 
the side of, are made by the American wild hogs or 
peccaries. These little republicans are very like the 





266 


BllAZJL. 


common pig,' but a good deal smaller, grayer, with 
more wiry hair, and more active. They always 
travel in droves, and the track they are in the habit 
of pursuing soon becomes a road—for they care 
nothing for prickly vines, or tough creepers. They 
are self-reliant, independent folk, and are troubled 
with most evil tempers. Every one gets out of their 
way; for if the hunter or traveller is unfortunate 
enough to offend their surly dignity, or silly enough 
to wound one of the community, a tree is his only 
resource; and there he may have to sit till he is 
relieved by some opportune accident, for it would 
be death, certain and sure, if he were to come within 
the reach of the enraged drove, who care not a straw 
even for a jaguar. 

Mr. Bard* gives an account of these little pigs, and 
of a personal encounter with them. “ The most 
exciting incident connected with our stay on the 
banks of this river was one which 1 can never recall 
without going into a fit of laughter; although, at the 
time, I did not regard it as remarkably amusing. 

“ Among the wild animals most common in Central 
and South America is the peccary, best known by 
the Spanish name of jabalino. There is another 
animal, something similar to the peccary, supposed 
to be the common hog run wild, called jabalino by 
the Spaniards, and waree by the Indians. If not 
indigenous, the latter have certainly multiplied to 
an enormous extent, since they swarm all over the 
more thickly wooded portions of the country. They 
closely resemble the wild boar of Europe, and al¬ 
though less in size seem to be equally ferocious. 
They go in droves, and are not at all particular as to 

* Adventures on the Mosquito Shore. 


ADVENTUBE WITH PECCAKIES. 


267 


their food, eating ravenously snakes and reptiles of 
all kinds. They have also a rational relish for fruits, 
and especially for plantains and bananas, and would 
prove a real scourge to the plantations, were they al¬ 
ways able to break down the tree supporting the fruit. 
Unable to do this, they nevertheless pay regular 
visits to the plantations, in the hope of finding a 
tree blown down, and of feasting on the fallen 
clusters. 

“ With these intimations as to their character and 
habits, the reader will be better qualified to ap¬ 
preciate the incident alluded to. It was a pleasant 
afternoon, and I had strolled off with my gun in the 
direction of the plantain patch, stopping occasionally 
to listen to the clear flute-like notes of some unseen 
bird, or to watch a brilliant lizard, as it flashed 
across the gray stones. Thus sauntering carelessly 
along my attention was suddenly arrested by a 
peculiar noise, as if of some animal, or rather of many 
animals, busily engaged in eating. I stopped, and 
peered in every direction to discover the cause, 
when finally my eyes rested upon what I at once took 
to be a pig of most tempting proportions. He was 
moving slowly with his nose to the ground, as if in 
search of food. Without withdrawing my gaze, 1 
carefully raised my gnn and fired. It was loaded 
with buck-shot, and though the animal fell, he rose 
again immediately, and began to make off. Of 
course I hurried after him, with the view of finish¬ 
ing my work with my knife; but I had not taken 
ten steps, when it appeared to me as if every stick, 
stone, and bush, had been converted into a pig. 
Hogs rose on all sides with bristling backs and tusks 
of appalling length. I comprehended my danger in 


268 


BRAZIL. 


an instant, and had barely time to leap into the 
forks of a low scraggy tree, before they were at its 
foot. I shall never forget the malicious look of 
their little bead-like eyes, as they raved around my 
roosting place, and snapped ineffectually at my 
heels. Although I felt pretty secure, I discreetly 
clambered higher, and fixing myself firmly in my 
seat, revenged myself by firing a charge of bird-shot 
in the face of the savagest of my assailants. This 
insult only excited the brutes the more, and they 
ground their teeth and frothed around the tree in a 
perfect paroxysm of porcine rage. 

“ I next loaded both barrels of my gun with ball, 
and deliberately shot two others through their heads, 
killing them on the spot, vainly imagining that I 
should thereby disperse the herd. Never was man 
more mistaken. The survivors nosed around their 
dead companions for a moment, and then renewed 
their vicious contemplations of my position. Some 
squatted themselves upon their hams, as much as to 
say they intended to wait for me, and were no wise 
in a hurry. So I loaded again, and slaughtered 
two more of the largest and most spiteful. But even 
then there were no signs of retreat; on the contrary, 
it seemed to me as if reinforcements sprang out of 
the ground, and that my besiegers grew every mo¬ 
ment more numerous. 

“ How long this might have lasted I am unpre¬ 
pared to say, had not Antonio, alarmed at my rapid 
firing, hastened to my rescue. No sooner did my 
assailants catch sight of his swarthy figure than they 
made after him with a vehement rush. He avoided 
them by leaping upon a rock, and then commenced 
a most extraordinary and murderous contest. Never 


BATTLE, AND RETKEAT.-ROADS AND TRAPS. 269 

did a "battalion of veteran soldiers charge upon an 
enemy with more steadiness than those wild pigs 
upon the Indian. He was armed with only a lance, 
hut every blow brought down a porker. Half alarmed 
lest they should finally overmatch him, I cheered 
his exploits, and kept up a brisk fire by way of a 
diversion in his favour. I am ashamed to say how 
many of those pigs we killed ; it is, perhaps, enough 
to add, that it was long after dark before the beasts 
made up their minds to leave us uneaten; and it 
was with a decided sensation of relief that we heard 
them moving off, until their low grunt was lost in 
the distance. 

“ At one time the odds were certainly against us, 
and it seemed not improbable that I and my 
adventures might both come to a pitiful, and far 
from poetical end. But fortune favoured, and my 
faithful gun now hangs over my table in boar-tusk 
brackets—triumphal trophies from that bloody field. 

“ Instead of being eaten, we ate, wherein consists 
a difference; but I was ever after wary of the 
waree.” 

The roads made by the peccaries are capital 
places for the Indian traps, for all terrestrial in¬ 
habitants of the forest travel along them, and a rough 
figure-of-4 trap is easily hidden, and lets down a 
heavy log on the first agouti, paca, or capybara that 
is unlucky enough to pass. These rodents are very 
common in the forests, and furnish the Indians with 
much of their animal food; not unfrequently, too, 
appearing in the markets of the towns. 

The paca is almost amphibious, and not often 
venturing far from the water, is difficult of capture. 
It is a beautiful little animal, brown and spotted 


270 


BRAZIL. 


with white, and about eighteen inches high and two 
feet long, something between a rat and a hare; and 
so delicate as food that it has little peace except in 
the most secluded recesses of the forest. The capy- 
bara is simply a gigantic rat, as big as a Newfound¬ 
land dog. The agouti is like a small paca. They 
are all easily domesticated, and make most lively and 
affectionate pets. 

Another most singular traveller, when he is above 
ground, on these peccary roads, is the armadillo, or 



THE ARMADILLO. 


tatu. There are several varieties, all very nearly 
omnivorous like our hedgehogs, and all possessing 
the strange power of rolling themselves up so tight 
in their coat of mail as to be unmanageable in the 
way of prey to any destroyer but man. He having 
discovered, as the gipsies have found out concerning 
his prickly English congener, that the poor arma¬ 
dillo’s flesh is of the most delicious kind, smokes him 
out of his den, in which he can burrow with such 



THE ARMADILLO AND VAMPIRE BAT. 


271 


rapidity as to preclude all attempts to dig him out, 
and consigns him, shell and all, to a pot of boiling 
water, or coats him with clay and bakes him in the 
fire. When rolled up he resembles no living creature, 
and if preserved in that position is generally taken 
for some large Brazilian nut. No beaks, nor teeth, 
nor claws can open or wound him; and if he can, he 



will roll down a hill or over a precipice quite heed¬ 
less of where he falls. 

To ascend from the quadrupeds that burrow in 
the earth, to one (if it can be called a quadruped) 
that flies in the air, the hideous and repulsive 
vampire bat—they are common everywhere, and 
may be seen issuing, as evening falls, in long black 
streams from the eaves of houses or the trunks of 
hollow trees. They are, to our ideas, gigantic, 
many of them measuring two feet across the wings, 
and all greatly exceeding in size our innocent, though 
ugly little vespertilios. As to their blood sucking 
propensities, there seems no reasonable doubt of 
them, in spite of the discredit some unbelieving 
writers have endeavoured to cast on the story. 
“ Every one,” says Edwards, “ is confident of it; 
and a number of gentlemen, at different times, 


272 


BRAZIL. 


assured me that they themselves had been phlebo¬ 
tomized, nor knew of the operation until a bloody 
hammock produced indubitable evidence. They 
spoke of it as a slight affair, and probably the little 
blood that is extracted is rarely an injury. If the 
sleeper be covered there is no danger, or if a light be 
kept burning in the room ; and often I have slept un¬ 
harmed, thus guarded, where bats were flitting about 
and squeaking the night long. Cattle and horses are 
not so easily protected, and a wound once made, the 
bat returns to it every night until proper precau¬ 
tions are taken, or the animal is killed by loss of 
blood.”* 

In some parts of the country, the landowners 
cannot rear cattle with success, from the ravages of 
these animals among the calves. Mr. Fletcher says 
that morning after morning he has seen beasts of 
burden, once strong, go staggering from loss of blood 
drawn during the night by the bats. In almost every 
instance they had tapped the shoulders, and the blood 
had flowed some time after the enemy’s meal was 
finished. The extremities are the usual points of 
attack, the ears of a horse, the toes of a man, and the 
comb of a cock. 

Like bugs and fleas, and other bloodsucking para¬ 
sites, the vampire will not touch some persons, while 
others are unable to stay in parts where they are 
common. Mr. Wallace, a naturalist, who was in¬ 
duced by Mr. Edwards’s book to explore the forest 
parts of Brazil, had an old negro among his party 
who was unceasingly annoyed by them. He was 
bitten almost every night, and though there might 
be half-a-dozen other persons sleeping in the same 

* Voyage up the Amazon, p. 41. 


THE VAMPIRE’S WOUND. 


273 


room, equally agreeable one would think, he could 
not expose the smallest portion of his bodily surface, 
without every bat devoting its particular atten¬ 
tion to him. Once he came with a most dismal 
face to his master, declaring that they meant to eat 
him up entirely. The poor old fellow had covered 
himself, hands, face, and feet, with a blanket (ho 
slight infliction in a Brazilian night), and thought to 
circumvent the bats. Far from it. They searched 
the open network of the hammock, and discovering 
that his trowsers had a hole in them, had greedily 
attacked the spot forthwith. 

There has been no little disputing as to the 
machinery employed by the bat to inflict his pin¬ 
hole wound. Its tongue, which can be consider¬ 
ably extended, is furnished at the tip with a number 
of papillae, as are also the lips, which naturalists 
think are intended to furnish an instrument of suc¬ 
tion. Some have contended that the tongue is rough 
enough to abrade the skin ; but since the wound is 
more like the prick of a needle, this seems hardly 
probable. Others suppose that the long sharp canine 
teeth furnish the lancet. Mr. Wallace thus gives his 
experience: “I was twice bitten, once on the toe, 
and a second time on the tip of the nose. In neither 
case did I feel any thing, but awoke after the opera¬ 
tion was completed. The wound is a small round 
hole, the bleeding of which it is very difficult to stop. 
It can hardly be a bite, as that would awake the 
sleeper. It seems most probable that it is either a 
succession of gentle.scratches with the sharp edge of 
the teeth, gradually wearing away the skin, or a 
triturating with the point of the tongue, till the same 
effect is produced. My brother was frequently bitten 

T 


274 


BRAZIL. 


by them; and his opinion was that the bat applied 
one of its long canine teeth to the part and then flew 
round and round on that as a centre, till the tooth, 
acting as an awl, bored a small hole; the wings 
serving at the same time to fan the patient into a 
deeper slumber. He several times awoke while the 
bat was at work, and though, of course, the creature 
immediately flew away, it was his impression that 
the operation was conducted in the manner above 
described.” 

Another naturalist, Dr. Gardner, has a different 
opinion. “Having carefully examined,” he says, 
“ in many cases the wounds thus made in horses, pigs, 
mules, and other animals—observations that have 
been confirmed by information received from the 
inhabitants of the northern part of Brazil—I am led 
to believe that the puncture which the vampire 
makes in the skin of animals is effected by the sharp, 
hooked nail of its thumb, and that from the wound 
thus made it abstracts the blood by the suctional 
power of its lips and tongue.” So much for this san¬ 
guinary pest. 

Brazil has other sanguinary inhabitants, which are 
all included by the natives in the general name of 
tigres. This word, however, in South America, is 
spoken with nothing of the awe and dread that a 
Hindoo feels at the terrible sound “bhag.” The 
Brazilians care little for any of their tigers—jaguar, 
puma, ounce, or black leopard. An islander of 
Marajo will chase any one of them to a tree, cut a 
long pole, tie his tresado, or forest-knife, to it, and 
poke it into the unfortunate tiger without the smallest 
fear. An Indian hunter of Mr. Edwards’ met a puma 
in the path one day. The beast sprang, as usual, to 


JAGUARS—ALLIGATORS. 


275 


a tree; the Indian fired his fowling-piece at him, only 
loaded with small shot: six discharges brought the 
animal to the ground, where he slew him valorously. 

The commonest weapon of attack is the national 
lasso, and against this the largest jaguar stands no 
chance. He is strangled and dragged till he is sense¬ 
less, and then pitched across his captor’s saddle like 
a sack of meal, and taken home. Here he is revived 
by a bucket of cold water dashed over him, and when 
he tries to run away, lassoed again. If he is intended 
for sale, he is taken to town in a most undignified 
way. One man drags him by the lasso round his 
neck, and another seizes his hind legs and trundles 
him along on his fore legs something like a wheel¬ 
barrow. 

The stories of the ferocity and power of these 
animals, that petrified our younger days, are at least 
doubtful: as a Brazilian gentleman naively remarked, 
on hearing some thrilling legends out of a natural 
history book, “ Ah! those were ancient jaguars; 
they are not so bad now-a-days.” This gentleman 
would doubtless have discredited also the old narra¬ 
tives of the cruelty, size, and power of the alligators 
of Brazil. So little do the natives care for these 
allies of the tigers in the warfare against young calves 
and sick cattle, that they catch one species habitually 
for food; and a great delicacy he is. The other is 
far larger; and when a troop of them can get hold of 
any wounded animal or bird, they display such 
greediness and destructive energy, crowds rushing 
on the victim, crashing their huge jaws and clamber¬ 
ing over one another in their eagerness, as to make 
the spectator thankful that their courage is not equal 
to their abilities. 

t 2 


276 


BRAZIL. 


Nevertheless, both jaguar and alligator would be 
unpleasant enemies to meet at a disadvantage, and 
there are sufficient well authenticated stories of their 
respective achievements against women, children, 
and wounded or sickly men, fully to warrant the 
deadly enmity with which they are persecuted. 

The largest wild animal in Brazil is the antu or 
tapir. They are as large as calves, three or four feet 
high and six long when full grown, of a deep brown 
in colour, almost black, with such short close hair as 
to appear, at a little distance, to have hardly any. 
They have, however, a long and bristly mane, which, 
with the partially prehensile trunk into which the 
snout is elongated, give the animal a sufficiently 
curious appearance to European eyes. The tapir is 
also found in Malacca and the Eastern archipelago ; 
but it is a singular circumstance that this old world 
animal was not discovered, or rather known to civil¬ 
ized nations, till long after its American congener. 

The habits of the animal are such as almost to 
qualify it for the title of amphibious, though, strictly 
speaking, it is terrestrial. It swims and dives with 
the greatest facility, haunting the borders of streams 
exclusively, and running along the bottom of the 
deepest pools with singular ease and rapidity. On 
land it can trot at a good pace, and when terrified 
puts its head between its fore-legs, and tears through 
the brushwood and thickets at a most respectable 
gallop. 

Its muscular power is enormous, and its hide can 
resist any leaden bullet except from a very short dis¬ 
tance. The spice of danger in the pursuit of it, since 
every bite takes the piece out as cleanly as if cut 
with a knife, makes the sport of hunting it very 


THE TAPIR AND SLOTH. 


277 


fascinating, and tapirs’ teeth are looked upon in South 
America as almost an equal honour and glory as a 
collar of grizzly bears’ claws among the Sioux or 
Comanehes. The favourite method is to drive it to the 
water, and then, pursuing it in a canoe, to harpoon it. 

As a contrast to the ferocious felidee and active 
tapir of Brazil, we may next notice that most singu¬ 
lar beast, the sloth, which abounds in the Brazilian 
forests. Most readers, doubtless, have seen the spe¬ 
cimen that the Zoological Society possessed a short 
time ago, and have wondered at the odd melancholy 
grin on its round unhappy face, its sluggish move¬ 
ments, and the singular formation of the hip joint, 
that allowed it to bend the hind leg in any direction 
as if it were an arm. The face of a sloth is very 
strange; there is an expression of miserable and 
forlorn hilarity on it that is most ludicrous. The 
corners of its mouth turn up, making him look a good 
deal like a sick monkey. There is no doubt as to the 
life he was made for. On the ground he is as forlorn 
and dejected as one can imagine, moving his head 
from side to side, and smiling aimlessly with his per¬ 
petual idiotic grin, clawing about feebly with the 
hooks that stand for his fingers, and occasionally 
sighing as if his heart would break, for he never 
utters any cry or other sound. But let him hook 
himself on to a tree, and his dull eye lights up, and 
the long grisly arms move faster and faster, hand over 
hand, or rather claw over claw, till he is lost in the 
depths of the forest. The Indians, jaguars, and 
above all, the harpy eagles, eat the sloth. But the 
long wiry limbs and lean body are not to be com¬ 
pared with plump monkey or iguana; and his-hideous 
resemblance, when skinned, to humanity, painfully 


278 


BRAZIL. 


affects the neophyte in the mysteries of Brazilian 
cookery. 

And this introduces us to the inexhaustible subject 
of monkeys, which sw T arm in the forests of Brazil, 
and on the spits and in the stewpans of forest cooks. 
Monkeys with tails long enough to wrap round and 
round them, monkeys with none at all, monkeys 
with tails the shape and size of a pumpkin, monkeys 
with whiskers, with bald heads, with no hair, with 
hair enough to hide them, monkeys that whistle, 
monkeys that roar, monkeys of all shapes, colours, and 
sizes, and with all manner of habits, manners, and 
customs, abound in the tree-tops and deep glades 
of the primeval: woods. Every now and then the 
traveller or hunter turns the corner and comes on 
a bushy-tailed colony, or perhaps academy of 
gymnastics, chasing one another round and round, 
and up and down the branches. One glimpse of 
him, and every mother snatches up her baby, and 
the whole posse make off helter-skelter. Some 
make enormous leaps; catching the branches with 
their long tails, and swinging like pendulums till 
sufficient velocity is gained for another extraordinary 
bound. Others hide in crevices and the forks of 
branches, and in two minutes not a monkey is to 
be seen. Let the intruder disappear, and two or 
three answering whistles bring them back as rapidly 
as they vanished. 

The first notice we find of one species of Brazi¬ 
lian monkey (Brachyurus calvus ) is rather amusing. 
A good priest writes in all solemnity and perfect 
good faith, affirming that there was in Brazil a race 
of men, whom he had seen, who were dwarfish in 
size, and had tails. One, he says, was brought to him, 


SHORT-TAILED AND HOWLING MONKEYS. 279 

whose tail was the thickness of a finger, half a palm 
long, and covered with a smooth and naked skin. 
He makes a further assertion, which is not so easily 
accounted for, and rather damages his credibility, 
for he states that this Indian did not like his tail too 
long, and accordingly cut it once a month. 



BALD-HEADED BRACHYDRU8. 


The commonest kind of monkey, or at least the 
one most noticed, as well it may he, is the guariba, 
or howling monkey. Mr. Edwards gives the follow¬ 
ing account of his introduction to these gentry:— 
“ Here we first heard in perfection the howling 
monkeys. There were a number of them, some near 
by, and others at a great.distance; all contributing 
to a noise, not comparable to anything, unless a 



280 


BRAZIL. 


commingling of the roaring of mad bulls and the 
squealing of mad pigs. This roaring power is owing 
to the peculiar conformation of the bones of the mouth, 
by which they are distinguished from all others of the 
family. We got quite close to a pair of these fellows 
in a tree-top near the water, as they were making all 
ring, deafening even themselves.” 

The almost undisputed sovereigns of the trees 
are the sapajous, or spider monkeys. These grave 
and gentle animals have little of the petulant 
restlessness of other quadrumana, and infinitely 
stronger affections ; and by the wonderful machinery 
of their tails and hind limbs, they easily, as any one 
may see in Eegent’s Park, surpass, in spite of their 
habitual sloth, any other monkeys in agility and 
vigour. There is one celebrated proof, too, of their 
possessing reasoning powers and invention, given by 
Dampier, that is, it is believed, quite true. When 
the sapajous want to cross a broad river, they adopt 
this method: having selected a tree on the bank 
higher than the river is broad, cue of the strongest 
ascends, twists his tail tightly round a branch, and 
then hangs; another coils his tail round the neck 
of the first; a third attaches himself in like manner 
to the second, and so on, till a living chain is formed 
long enough almost to touch the ground. Then 
they begin to swing: faster and faster the pendulum 
oscillates, the bottom monkey striking his hands 
on the ground to add to its velocity, till at last the 
free end is thrown up among the branches of the 
trees on the other side, and he grasps them firmly. 
Across this living bridge run all the females and 
young without the least hesitation, and the rest 
of the tribe. Then the first monkey uncoils his tail: 


ALBINO MONKEY. 


281 


the pendulum swings over, and all scamper off. 
But sometimes this cannot he done: the bank on 
the further side may be higher than that on the one 
they started from, and the first monkeys would be 
dashed against it were they simply to swing off. 
In such cases, the end monkey clambers higher up 
the tree he has caught hold of, dragging the whole 
chain higher and higher, till it can swing clear. 
This manoeuvre has been witnessed many times, 
and of itself seems to make a sufficient answer to 
those who say that brutes have not reason similar 
in kind, albeit less in degree, than we ourselves. 

Indeed, in general intelligence and impish acute¬ 
ness the monkeys of Brazil may match any of their 
compeers. Mr. Edwards gives an amusing descrip¬ 
tion of an albino monkey belonging to a friend of 
his. “ One venture was that of a white monkey, 
pretty nearly equal, in his master’s estimation, to 
most children, and some adults. Nick had not 
been with us long before he was upon the top of 
the house, and refused all solicitations to come down. 
It was of no use to pursue him: moving slowly off, 
as though he appreciated the joke, he would at last* 
perch upon some inaccessible point, and to the 
moving entreaties of his master would reply by 
applying his thumb to his nose, and the monkey jabber 
of ‘ No you, don’t! ’ At other times, when there was no 
danger of sudden surprises, he amused his leisure 
by running over all the roofs, raising the tiles, and 
peering down into the chambers, to the general 
dismay. At length, as fair means would not do, 
foul must; and Nick received a discharge from a 
gun loaded with com; but somewhere on the roof 
he obtained a rag of cloth, and holding it before 


282 


BRAZIL. 


him, he would peep over the top, ready to dodge 
at the flash. It would not do: we gave Nick up 
as lost; hut of his own accord he at last descended, 
and submitted to durance.” 

Monkeys of all kinds, as has been mentioned, 
are most acceptable as additions to, and even the 
staple of, a bill of fare in Brazil. Whatever repug¬ 
nance the innocent stranger at first feels, and not 
unnaturally, to partaking of what appears to be a 
broiled, fricasseed, or otherwise cooked little baby, 
is gradually and rapidly dissipated when he finds 
how nice it tastes. No wild animal in the whole 
empire is so much thought of as monkey. 

Some of the monkey inhabitants of the South 
American woods are almost unknown to European 
eyes; and certainly had one ever seen them, they 
are not likely soon to be forgotten. The monkeys 
of Goyaz are proverbial for their ludicrous ugliness. 
The peculiarity that distinguishes them, and catches 
the eye at once, is that the hair grows forward over 
the forehead, like that of a man; while one species 
indulges in an immense pair of grey moustaches, and 
a frill, or beard, under the chin. 

So like human beings are they, indeed, that it is 
often long before the most ardent sportsman can get 
over the painful feelings excited by their behaviour 
when wounded and dying. When struck to death, 
they lie without uttering a sound or a complaint, 
watching the blood as it flows, and piteously touch- 
ing it from time to time ; while they turn their eyes 
on their slayer with an expression of bitter reproach 
not to be mistaken. The strange melancholy exhibited 
in a monkey’s face even in the midst of its most 
mischievous freaks is then intensified into a profound 


LEMURS AND MARMOSETS—THE HARPY EAGLE. 283 

and suffering sadness that has unmanned many even 
of those proverbially unsparing folk, naturalists. 
Some of these go so far as to say that when a monkey 
is wounded, its companions will help him to climb 
beyond the reach of further danger, and will even 
chew leaves and apply them to the wound to stop 
the hemorrhage. 

The prettiest of all the Brazilian monkeys are the 
lemurs, and above all the beautiful little ouistiti or 
marmoset. This is a universally favourite pet. It has 
nothing disagreeable or repulsive about it, and be¬ 
comes exceedingly tame in a short time. They live 
on small birds and insects, which they catch with 
wonderful agility and address : mice do not come 
amiss; and they devour them in a singular manner, 
beginning at the snout and pushing back the skin 
carefully till they reach the tail. They are painfully 
delicate and timid : rough handling will throw them 
into fatal convulsions; and a room whose air is 
foul with the breath of many persons, or an escape 
of gas, is quite sufficient to kill them. 

Some time ago, all the delicate monkeys in the 
Zoological Gardens in Regent’s Park were killed by 
being kept in a room with a stove; when an open 
grate was substituted, their successors escaped. 

We must leave these four-handed dwellers in the 
trees to notice one or two of the more peculiar oi 
their winged fellow inhabitants. And first the great 
Brazilian eagle, well named the harpy, claims atten¬ 
tion ; so large and powerful, that it is stated to be 
able to split the skull of a calf with a single blow, 
and so fearless and ferocious, that children, and even 
men have, it is said, been repeatedly attacked. Its 
usual food consists of sloths, monkeys, and the larger 


284 


BRAZIL. 


denizens of the forest; and its haughty and savage 
appearance seems to be warrant enough for the 
truth of the man}?- tales that are told of its voracity 
and power. A young one, Mr. Edwards relates, was 
purchased by a friend of his, and most unwisely 
turned loose into a garden where he had collected 
a variety of specimens of the birds and beasts of 
Brazil. “ Before long, he gave us a sample of his 
powers : with erected crest, and flashing eyes, utter¬ 
ing a frightful shriek, he pounced upon a young 
ibis, and quicker than thought had torn his reeking 
liver from his body. The whole animal world below 
there was wild with fear: the monkeys scudded 
to a hiding place, and parrots, herons, ibises, and 
mutuns, with all the hen tribe that could muster 
the requisite feathers, sprang helter-skelter over the 
fences, some of them never to be reclaimed.” 

This bird is still common throughout the interior, 
and is called Gavao Beal, or royal hawk, by the 
inhabitants. It is difficult of capture, and pines in 
confinement, so that it has hardly ever made its appear¬ 
ance in the European zoological collections. One 
that a French naturalist was carrying home fell a 
victim to its own greediness and ferocity. The 
sailors of the ship had a number of pet monkeys on 
board. These unfortunates the harpy decimated. 
Whenever one came within its reach, he seized it 
with a motion too sudden for the most agile to avoid, 
stripped off its skin, and then devoured it, literally 
body and bones. However interesting these feats 
might be to the naturalists, the sailors vowed 
vengeance, and one morning the harpy was found 
dead. The English Zoological Society obtained 
one some twenty years ago, whose first performance 


THE CARACARA EAGLE. 


285 


was to kill and eat a king vulture, thereby proving 
not only the strength of its beak and talons, but 
also of its digestion, since a vulture is as unsavoury 
a morsel as it could have well selected. A cat was 
put into its cage, and the eagle, with one blow of 
its foot, broke the animal’s back. Its appearance, 
travellers say, when it is discovered sitting motion¬ 
less and silent on a dead limb, overhanging the 
yellow eddies of one of those vast western rivers, 
with the whole crest elevated, and the long ear-like 
feathers on each side of the head standing stiffly 
erect with watchful excitement, and with its golden 
eyes glaring with savage eagerness, is noble in the 
extreme. 

Nevertheless some of the ancient accounts of its 
size and prowess must be taken with some allowance, 
unless, as in the case of the jaguars above mentioned, 
the harpies of old were different from those now-a-days. 
Hernandez avers that it is as big as a ram, that it will 
attack the fiercest beast, and that it may be trained 
like a hawk to pursue game. Linnaeus is the au¬ 
thority for its head-splitting powers. 

As the harpy eagle is the first of the Brazilian 
falconidae, so the caracara (so called from its hoarse 
peculiar cry) is the meanest. This eagle partakes 
a good deal of the vulture—nothing comes amiss to 
it. D’Azara states what is very singular in a bird 
of prey, that it will join in companies of four or five 
to hunt down birds and beasts too strong for it 
to master alone. If it is alone, the caracara is not too 
proud to avail itself of most disgusting methods of 
getting a livelihood. It will chase vultures till they 
disgorge, and then devour the product. 

When hard up, the caracara is by no means proud. 


286 


BRAZIL. 


Fi’ogs, snails, all manner of reptiles, ants, snakes, 
flies, grasshoppers, and all insects, are not too small 
a prey for it. M. Spix shot two specimens while 
at work picking ticks out of the skins of oxen. 

One peculiarity makes it very hateful in the eyes 
of the traveller. If he lies down to sleep, during 
the day (which is not uncommon in Brazil), when 
he opens his eyes again, there is a caracara on every 
eminence, and on every branch, watching him with 
greedy eyes. This habit costs them dear, not 
unfrequently, for no one who has a shot to throw 
away can forbear trying his skill on these unclean 
and cowardly enemies, who exhibit such repulsive 
readiness to try theirs on him, if they dared. 

Another Brazilian bird worthy of notice is the 
toucan. Until comparatively recently, these sin¬ 
gular, top-heavy looking strangers were all but 



HEAD OF A TOE CAN 


unknown, except in a stuffed condition, to British 
eyes ; and naturalists had, or thought they had, 
considerable reason to suspect stuffed skins, of 
which they had seen no living representatives. But 
the noble aviary at the London Zoological Gar¬ 
dens has removed all incredulity as to the toucan, 


THE TOUCANS. 


287 


and established beyond a doubt that there really is 
a living bird with a bill nearly as big as the rest of 
him, and who sleeps with his tail turned backwards 
over his head. 

The toucan is one of the climbing birds, such as 
parrots and woodpeckers. There are many varieties 
of them, of which the commonest are the red-billed 
(Rhamphastus erythrorhyncus ), and the ariel (R. ariel ), 
and the JR. dicolor. Their plumage is brilliant in 
the extreme, and the striking colours of their enor¬ 
mous beaks add to the variegated show which a 
troop of them make on a tree. The breast feathers 
of the last mentioned species are orange, chrome 
yellow, and rose colour, shaded into one another. 
These were three centuries ago the most valued 
ornaments for the court robes of noble ladies. At 
present they only decorate the glass cases of a mu¬ 
seum, or the forehead of some Indian taucha, or chief. 
One species seems hardly satisfied with his own tail, 
but twines it into a pattern with his beak, which 
cuts like a pair of scissors. 

Altogether they are the most eccentric looking 
birds in the country. Their flight is ludicrously 
ungainly, from the disproportionate size of their 
beaks; and one not uncommon species named the 
pteroglossus , or aracari, gives strongly the impression 
that he is wearing spectacles. When a flock have 
alighted on a tree, one acts as sentinel, sitting motion¬ 
less on the topmost bough, and uttering unceasingly 
the loud cry from which they derive their name, 

“ tucano t tucano.” They have a singular way of taking 
their food: owing to the tongue being stiff, and 
covered with short hairs, they have to throw the 
head backwards and jerk the food to the throat by a 


288 


BRAZIL. 


succession of shakes. The bill seems to possess a 
good deal of sensitiveness, resembling in this the tip 
of the bill of the snipe or woodcock, or of the duck, 
but in a greater degree. The toucan can often be 
seen scratching it with his foot. The structure of the 
huge but light organ is cancellated, and the nerves 
are distributed along the inner chambers somewhat 
elaborate^, and accompanied, of course, by blood¬ 
vessels to an amount uncommon in birds’ mandibles. 
The use of this very large and sensitive organ some 
naturalists think they have discovered in the use the 
toucan puts it to when it wishes to vary its diet. 
Many of the birds of Brazil build long pendulous 
nests; still more lay their eggs and hatch their 
young in holes, like woodpeckers. Now the toucan 
is very fond, for variety, of both eggs and young ; 
and it is supposed he could not search out the hidden 
corners of the nurseries he invades, unless his bill 
were as long and as delicate in feeling as it is. This 
is undoubtedly the reason why snipes and woodcocks 
have the network of nerves at the tips of their man¬ 
dibles ; but since fruit is the staple diet of the toucan, 
we may fairly look to the tough rinds and pulp-im¬ 
bedded seeds of the Brazilian fruits for the purpose 
of the singular and powerful organ with which he is 
endowed. 

Toucans feed only at morning and evening, and 
doze away the noon in the recesses of the forest. 
During their repast they keep up a hoarse chattering, 
occasionally chiming in with their vociferous sentinel. 

They are as easily tamed as parrots, and are as 
docile and amusing, with the exception that they 
cannot talk. No one can have any idea of the bril¬ 
liant effect of a living toucan from a stuffed specimen, 


THE BELL-BIRD. 


289 


since the bill, in which is often concentrated the 
most striking contrast of colour, fades past prevention 
during the process of preservation. 

We cannot here notice all the gorgeous birds that 
enliven the gloom of a Brazilian forest; hut among 
the chatterers (comprising, with the exception of the 
humming-birds, the most splendid varieties) one is 
so notorious that it must not he passed in silence: 
the campanero, or bell-bird. 



THE CAMPANERO. 


To most travellers this bird has been, celebrated 
as it is, a marvel “ longed for, never seen.” It is about 
the size of a small dove, snow-white, when of full 
age: its peculiarity is its cry, which hooks state is 
like the tolling of a church bell, or “ the pounding 
of a hammer upon an anvil.” Few, if any, have 
heard such a performance as this ; hut the birds have 
been occasionally shot, and serve to show the inac¬ 
curacies that creep into meritorious works of natural 

XT 


290 


BRAZIL. 


history. The caruncle, that is sometimes represented 
like the horn of a goat protruding from its forehead, 
turns out to be much more like the fleshy appendage 
of a very diminutive turkey-cock. The accompany¬ 
ing engraving, taken from Mr. Fletcher’s work, gives 
an accurate representation of the uruponga , which is 
its native name. 

Another singular looking specimen of the chatterers 
is that commonly called the umbrella-bird ( Ceplia - 
lopterus ornatus ), and by the natives urumuimbu or 
ueramimbe , “trumpet-bird,” and is one of the rarest 
of Brazilian birds. It is about the size of a crow, 
glossy blue-black in colour. It feeds on fruits, and 
utters a deep, hoarse, bugle-like note. But its singu¬ 
larity consists in the arrangement of the feathers of 
the head. They are more than two inches long, and 
can be laid back so as to be hardly visible, or, at 
pleasure, spread out on every side, so as to form a 
hemispherical dome, completely covering the head, 
and extending even beyond the point of the beak. 

The water-birds—herons, egrets, plovers, ducks, 
geese, cranes, and so forth through almost all the 
genera of ornithology—are numberless. The Indians 
are aware of their value and agreeableness as varia¬ 
tions on the fish and farinha, and in the breeding 
season make great havoc, in their wasteful manner, 
among the eggs and young birds. At other times 
they are reduced to the blowing-cane, which is not 
very useful against the watchful prey, or tc shooting 
them as they fly to and from the rivers and lakes in 
long clanging strings. Human arms, however prac¬ 
tised, can seldom shoot strongly or truly enough to 
hit a wild goose flying; but the Indians, we are 
assured, use their legs for this purpose, and can 


INDIAN ARCHERS—BRILLIANT PLUMAGES. 291 

thereby bend a far stronger bow, and take a far surer 
aim. 



CABOCTO ARCHERS. 


In this paradise of the west, all life seems more 
vigorous and intense than in colder climates ; and in 
nothing is this shown so strongly as in the hues of 
the birds. Trogons of one uniform golden green, 
that in sunlight literally, and not metaphorically, 
dazzle the eyes; crested manakins, red, yellow, and 
white, bustling about the low shrubs so as to keep 
them in one constant glitter of many colours; gorgeous 
macaws of every conceivable tint, clambering over 
the fruit-laden branches, hoarsely screaming; wood- 


292 


BRAZIL. 


peckers, splendid in hues unknown to their northeri 
brethren; tree-creepers in countless numbers, running 
over the rough bark of the old trees like brilliant in¬ 
sects ; doves of all sizes, shapes, and colours, king of 
which is the pombo troneal (Columba speciosa ), “ the 
bird with the painted breastlong-tailed whidah 
birds—or birds very like them—swinging and floating 
on the tendrils of the vanilla, or the heavy blossoms 
of the bignonia; and anagers, scarlet, crimson, and 
blue, wriggling in and out of the tangled branches, 
are but a part of the beautiful creation of the all-wise 
God, who, it is not irreverent to believe, takes pleasure 
himself in the beauty and grace that so lavishly 
decorate these works of his hands. 

To the singular birds that haunt Brazilian woods 
and streams are eminently suited the singular plants 
and fruits there, and there only, to be found. The 
most wonderful both in itself and in its adaptation to 
the habits of several strange birds, is the queen of 
lilies, the Victoria Regia. With leaves of eighteen 
feet round, and flowers of four, covering the still, 
deep lakes and river pools of the dark forest with 
their glossy-green and snow-white, and scenting the 
air half a mile around with their overpowering fra¬ 
grance, we can understand the transport of mingled 
exultation and religious reverence, that made Haenke, 
its discoverer, fall upon his knees, and break out into 
incoherent exclamations of bewildered delight and 
of praise to God. 

On the broad leaves of this gigantic lily and other 
similar water-plants, is the home of the jacana: in¬ 
deed the Victoria Regia is called by the natives of 
the Amazon the Uape Japona , or “ Jacana’s oven.” 
This jacana is a long-legged bird, about twice the 


JACANA—BOATBILL AND SPOONBILL. 


293 



size of a woodcock, with, long sharp spurs on its 
wings. Its distinguishing mark is the immense size 
of its feet, which enable it safely and silently to steal 
over the large floating leaves of the various water- 
plants among which it searches for its food. 

Two other strange feathered inhabitants of the 
haunts of the great illy are the boatbill and the 


spoonbill, whose names are enough to describe them 
here. Among the broad leaves the hideous head of 
the alligator is often seen protruding, suddenly 






294 


BRAZIL. 


quenching the ardour of the wading naturalist, and 
suggesting the prudent use of a canoe. 

Did space allow, we would willingly indulge in a 
lengthened description of the parrots and macaws of 
Brazil, which is, indeed, a very paradise for them. 
Most of the brazen-throated rainbow-coloured fellows 
that sit on the perches and climb about the poles of 
that place of unearthly noise, the parrot room of the 
Zoological Gardens, come from South America. 

The roosting-places of the great blue and yellow 
macaws in the woods east of Para are such Babels of 
hoarse vociferation, as to deafen the travellers’ ears. 
Still parrot is a favourite dish, and macaws’ feathers 
are a favourite ornament; so that the repose, if such 
it can be called, of their noisy dormitories is not 
unfrequently invaded. Mr. Edwards came upon one 
in sailing up the Amazon. “ Towards evening,” he 
writes, “ we came to a place where the macaws were 
assembling to roost. Disturbed by our approach, they 
circled over our heads in great numbers, screaming 

outrageously. A-caught up a gun, and as one of 

them came plump into the water winged, men, women, 
and children set up a shout of admiration ; two of the 
boys were instantly in the stream in chase of the bird, 
which was making rapid strokes towards a clump of 
bushes: macaw arrived first, and for joy at his deliver¬ 
ance laughed in exultation, but a blow of a pole 
knocked him into the water again, and a towel over 
his nose soon made him prisoner. The poor fellow 
struggled lustily, roaring, and using bill and toes to 
good purpose : his sympathizing brethren flew round 
and round, screaming in concert, and it was not until 
another shot had cut off the tail of one of the most 
noisy that they began to credit us for being in earnest.” 


TAME AND WILD PARROTS. 


295 


On another occasion he witnessed a most ludicrous 
scene among the parrot world. “ Extraordinary 
noises from a flock of parrots at a little distance 
attracted our attention. At one instant all was 
hushed ; then broke forth a perfect Babel of screams, 
suggestive of the clamour of a flock of crows and jays 
about a helpless owl. It might be that the parrots 
had beleagured one of these sun-blinded enemies ; or 
perhaps the assembly had met to canvass some 
momentous point, the overbearing conduct of the 
avavas, or the growing insolence of the parroquets. 
Guns in hand, we silently crept towards them, and 
soon discovered the cause of the excitement. Con¬ 
spicuously mounted on a tree-top stood a large green 
parrot, while around him, upon adjacent branches, 
were collected a host of his compeers ; there was a 
pause : ‘ O —u—u—u !’ came down from the tree- 
top, and a burst of imitative shrieks and vociferous 
applause followed. ‘ Ha, ha, ha—a!’ and Poll 
rolled his head, and doubled up his body, quite be¬ 
side himself with laughter. Tumultuous applause 
and encores — 4 Ha, ha, ha ! Papaguyri—a—a !’ 
and he spread his wings and began to dance on his 
perch with emphasis. The effect upon the auditory 
was prodigious, and all sorts of rapturous contortions 
were testifying their intelligence, when some sus¬ 
picious eye spied our hiding-place, and the affrighted 
birds hurried off, their borrowed notes of joy ludi¬ 
crously changed to natural notes of alarm. Com¬ 
placent Poll! he had escaped from confinement, and 
with his stock of Portuguese was founding a new 
school among the parrots.” 

But we must leave the parrots, and with one word 
about the loveliest of all the many lovely things in 


296 


BRAZIL. 


Brazil, bring this sketch of her productions to a 
close. One of the first things to strike the visitor’s 
eye, the one he oftenest gazes on, and the one that 
longest dwells in his memory, is the little living 
jewel, the Brazilian humming-bird, beijar-flor (kiss- 
flower, as the Brazilians call them). Wherever a 
bell-flower is waving in the wind, wherever a heavy 
blossom hangs fragrant and loaded with honey from 
a tree-bough, there glitters this atom of splendour. 
Not half the size of the humble-bee, his rival, the 
Trochilus rufigaster , brighter than any ruby, or the 
long-tailed Trochilus polyurus , like a diamond beetle, 
gold, green, black, red, and purple, all at once buzzes 
round and round the sweet flowers ; then he perches 
on a bough some tenth of an inch thick, to him an 
immense limb, and smooths and dresses his plumes 
with great dignity, and pardonable self-complacency. 
Then some deadly rival catches his eye; and bursting 
with unspeakable wrath, with every feather erect, 
and blazing with rage and brilliancy, he sails off to 
the conflict, an Ajax half an inch long. Up and 
down, and round and round the heroes career, twit¬ 
tering anger; then they mount up out of sight, and 
again descend, fighting with ferocity enough for 
elephants or golden eagles. Just as they have almost 
touched the ground, and are in danger of being dashed 
into little, very little pieces, they separate; the 
tournament is over, honour is vindicated, and the 
combatants retire to a flower or a twig for refreshment 
and repose. The black bee is the real enemy. His 
coat of mail is impervious to the furious attack of his 
wrathful foe, half his own size; and his sluggish 
good humour drives the poor humming-bird half 
mad with ineffectual rage. Again and again he darts 


HUMMING-BIRDS. 


297 


on the bee, till his anger exhausts itself, or till an 
angry hum, and an ominous vibration of the sting 
overawe him. 

Mr., Gosse selects the long-tailed humming-bird as 
the most beautiful thing in American ornithology ; 
and he is right. Even in a glass case, with a wire in 
their backs, they are very lovely, and when darting 
about in their own happy world, or sitting brooding 
on their tiny nests, as big as walnuts, with eggs like 
little peas, the gracious saying concerning the lilies 
of the field is irresistibly applied by the beholder 
to them—“ Doth God so clothe the birds of the 
air and will he not much more clothe you, 0 ye of 
little faith ?” Clothe you ? Yes; give him your 
heart, trust in his mercy and love, believe in Christ 
their greatest manifestation, and he will care for 
you, feed you, love you, guard you in life, support 
you in death, and watch over you now and for ever¬ 
more with the same omnipotent power, and the same, 
nay, far more than the same, ceaseless, tender, loving 
care that blesses the little mite of a humming-bird, 
with its gorgeous dyes and its happy little life. 




( 298 ) 


CHAPTER VIII. 

THE ABORIGINES OF BRAZIL. 

The Brazilian Indians an integral part of the empire—Tupi-Guarani race and 
language—Orellana—His voyage and discoveries—Name of “Amazon”— 
Journey of two priests and six soldiers down it—.Teixera's voyage and dis¬ 
coveries—The Amazons—Ancient number and magnitude of the tribes— 
Lingua Franca—Emigration of the Aymores—Extinct nations—Reasons of 
the preservation of the Brazilian tribes—Uses of the palms—Cannibals— 
Migration of persecuted tribes — Present freedom of the Indians — Their 
debasement—Government—Feather-work — India-rubber shoes—Weapons— 
Their future — Their irreligion—Devil-worship — An Indian funeral — A 
Seekroe, or funeral feast—Obi—The gra-gre horn—Taboo—A Towka marriage 
—Indian physic—A Snake-bite cured—Chicha palm-wine—Madame Pfeiffer’s 
Indian experience— Sukias—Conclu sion. 


No work upon Brazil, however slight, would be com¬ 
plete without a notice of the aboriginal tribes. In 
the history of most countries, the children of the soil, 
their habits, appearance, and condition are subjects 
of merely antiquarian or ethnological interest. The 
past history of the Delawares or Pawnees of North 
America, and their present state, have no appreciable 
effect on the history and present condition of the 
United States. To know everything that is at 
present practically valuable about Van Diemen’s 
Land, it is not necessary to inquire at all concerning 
Tasmanian tribes, now extinct. The aborigines have 
nothing to do with Melbourne or Victoria. The 
Oscans, and even Etruscans of Italy, might be 
totally neglected even could we learn anything reli¬ 
able about them, and yet the history of Pome be 
perfect. Blue-painted skin-clad Britons only serve 


NATIVE INDIAN TRIBES. 


299 


to fill a page or two in tlie most voluminous English 
history. The legends of all these archaic tribes are 
one thing, the history of their conquerors and sup- 
planters is quite another, and quite distinct. The 
Caribs might never have existed, and yet the state 
of the Windward Islands have been just what it is 
now. This is not so in Brazil. In most provinces 
the Indians still exist in large numbers, under most 
efficient and stringent protection. They compose a 
large part of the national army. They compose a 
still larger part of the tillers of the ground. By 
intermarriages the characteristic features of their 
race appear in many families in the largest towns of 
the empire. The products of their peculiar arts and 
manufactures are still most profitable exports, and 
the influence of their habits and customs can be seen 
every where throughout the country. 

On the first discovery of South America, there 
appear to have existed about 150 different tribes. 
The dominant one in numbers and spirit as well as 
civilization, was one that was singularly distributed. 
From the mouth of the Amazon to the province of 
Sao Paulo they extended in a narrow belt along the 
sea-coast. Thence they spread inland to the Para¬ 
guay, and so along the great head-waters of La Plata 
and the Amazon, and on the mouths of the various 
tributaries of the king of rivers, to its very mouth. 
All along the sea-coast they were known by a variety 
of cognate names; the Tupi, Tupi-Tupinaki, Tupi- 
nambi or Tupinambos, and the Tamoyos. In the 
south and inland they were called the Guarani. 
Their language was practically the same known to 
philologists as the Tupi-Guarani, of which Dr. 
Latham remarks, “With two exceptions, the Malay 


300 


BRAZIL. 


and the Athabascan, the Tupi-Guarani is the most 
remarkable tongue in the world.” 

Hemmed in by this great nation, there existed in 
the interior multitudes of other tribes totally distinct 
in form, features, and habits, and, what is more 
material, in language. They hardly ever succeeded in 
reaching the coast, being regarded with horror by the 
coast tribes as a sort of forest devils, and themselves 
regarding water with such superstitious dread, that 
the smallest stream stopped them as completely as it 
would witches according to mediaeval belief. 

Orellana was the first to give any detailed account 
of these tribes; and he seems to have been so be¬ 
wildered by fear and hardships, that much of his story 
is incredible, in spite of the greater indulgence now 
accorded to travellers’ tales since the abundant vindi¬ 
cations of Herodotus and Bruce. The method of his 
discoveries was this. 

In 1541, Gonzalo Pizarro, while subjugating Peru, 
heard of a spice-country to the east. Spices and gold 
were inseparably associated in a Spaniard’s mind, 
and to hear of gold was to start in search of it. With 
that audacity which accomplished such great things 
by simply daring to do what seemed impossible, he 
started from Quito with 200 foot, 100 horse, and 4000 
Indians as beasts of burden. Before they had tra¬ 
velled ninety miles, earthquakes, tempests, hunger 
and cold had grievously troubled and disheartened 
them. Francisco de Orellana, a lieutenant of Pizarro, 
came to their aid with a small reinforcement, and 
the expedition proceeded. 

The sufferings and hardships they endured were 
worse than any they had experienced before. The 
Indians died or ran away. The soldiers perished by 


Orellana’s voyage down the amazon. 301 

dozens; at last they came to a stand in great dis¬ 
tress. Unwilling to return, unable to get on—at least 
by land, Pizarro determined to send Orellana in a 
small vessel they had built down the river Coca, to 
try and find some provisions for the starving army. 
Orellana proceeded 100 miles through a desert, till 
he reached the Napo. He could not return, nor wait 
for his leader. He and his companions, about fifty 
in number, deliberately sailed east on their own 
account. Their adventures with savage beasts, 
savage wildernesses, and still more savage Indian 
tribes, were innumerable, and the river seemed end¬ 
less. At last the mighty current swept them out to 
sea, whence they reached the West Indies, and sailed 
home to Spain. 

There Orellana and a friar who had been with him 
published a book, in the composition of which their 
imaginations seem, as before remarked, to have over¬ 
powered their judgment. The circumstance concern¬ 
ing it most worthy of note, was that an account they 
gave of a nation of female warriors whom they stated 
they had discovered, calling them Amazons, gave the 
great river its present European name. The Indian 
name is Para-na-tinga, “king of waters.” 

Orellana subsequently endeavoured to repeat his 
voyage the other way, induced by a grant of domi¬ 
nion ; but he was unable to find the mouth of the 
river, and after long and numerous ineffectual 
attempts, died of fatigue and vexation. 

Nearly a hundred years later, Orellana’s voyage 
was repeated by two priests and six soldiers. They 
had been with a large expedition sent for missionary 
purposes to the Indians on the frontiers of Peru. 
Believing that it was certain death to attempt to 


302 


BKAZIL. 


return by the way they came, they determined to 
brave the unknown dangers of the eastern journey. 
They got safe to Para, on the south side of the mouth 
of the Amazon, but so enfeebled by hardship and 
distracted with terror, that they were unable to give 
any intelligible account of what they had seen and 
suffered. The incoherent scraps of information that 
were drawn from them related entirely to frightful 
dangers, cannibals, and wild beasts. Stimulated by 
these exciting subjects, an expedition started up the 
river, in 1637, under the command of one Teixera, to 
the number in all of 1000 persons. The following 
year they arrived at Quito with much jubilation, and 
without much danger or suffering. Teixera sent his 
journal and map to the viceroy, who ordered him to 
return the way he came, taking with him competent 
surveyors. This was done, and from their published 
narrative and Teixera’s documents we gather the 
earliest reliable information we have of the ancient 
tribes of North Brazil. 

The tribes they met with were, naturally, those 
that were gathered about the banks of the rivers. 
The discoverers never wandered far from their 
vessels, and the Indians seem to have generally pre¬ 
ferred the neighbourhood of streams. 

The first nation they mention is the Encabellados, 
or long-haired Indians, on the Napo. They deserved 
their name, apparently, for in both sexes the hair 
reached below the knees. They were cannibals, and 
continually at war with their neighbours, fighting 
with the greatest ferocity and using the javelin as 
their chief weapon. 

Further down the river dwelt the Omaguas, a 
nation who had adopted the singular custom of flat- 


TUCANAS, URINAS, AND OTHER TRIBES. 303 

tening the head in childhood, which the flat-head 
Indians of North America practise to improve their 
beauty. These were advanced, comparatively, in 
civilization, for they grew cotton, traded in it, used 
india-rubber, and seemed to have some form of peace¬ 
able government. Nevertheless along the whole 
length of their territory, nearly 600 miles of islands 
and bank along the river, their turbulent neighbours, 
the Tucanas and Urinas, kept them constantly at war. 
These Tucanas, it is stated, worshipped a house-god, 
and believed in metempsychosis, or the transmigra¬ 
tion of souls. If this be true, it would tend to show 
(in accordance with numerous similar instances) 
that these now degraded savages are the degenerate 
descendants of a nation once civilized. Household 
deities imply the idea of home, and of benevolent 
tutelary divine protection, quite a distinct thing 
from the propitiatory devil-worship of common 
savages, which is rather the product of vague and 
ignorant fear, than the remnant of the original reve¬ 
lation of a benevolent God. And metempsychosis is 
an artificial corruption of the doctrine of immortality, 
hardly such as savages would invent for themselves. 
The Tucanas clothed themselves also in a sort of 
fabric made from the bark of a tree, and were singu¬ 
larly skilful in bird-stuffing. 

The Urinas, on the contrary, were cannibals, shaved 
the head, and confined their personal attire to a 
macaw feather stuck into each corner of the mouth, 
and strings of shells hung from the nose, ears, and 
under lip. 

Passing by many other tribes, the explorers came 
to the great nation called the Cuisiciraris, who inha¬ 
bited 240 miles along the banks of the Juma. They 


304 


BRAZIL. 


were peaceable traders, and excelled in pottery¬ 
making. Ovens and fryingpans are mentioned as 
among their manufactures. Golden ornaments were 
observed among them, for the first time among all the 
nations. 

The Jupuras came next, so named from a fruit of 
which they made a kind of black pasty food. 

The Puros, living on a river of the same name, were 
remarkable as having among them the idea of expia¬ 
tion of sin. Their method of atonement for national 
and individual guilt was fasting, and this they 
carried to such an extent, allowing no plea of sex, 
age, infirmity, or disease, that numbers annually died 
from sheer starvation. From them Teixera heard of 
a tribe of enormous giants, at a distance of two months’ 
voyage up the river. The care with which the dis¬ 
coverers mention most of their extraordinary and 
incredible legends as only hearsay, reminds us of 
Herodotus, and adds to the credibility of their 
accounts of what they themselves saw. 

The Caripuras and Zurinas they mention as show¬ 
ing considerable skill in carving. 

The Rio Negro was the next river they came to, 
and here they heard legends of a distant people wear¬ 
ing hats and coats, probably some Spanish settle¬ 
ment. 

Passing the branch of the Orinoco that communi¬ 
cates with the Rio Negro, they came to the Madeira, 
so called from the quantities of wood that floated 
down it. Below it was the great island of the Tupi- 
nambas. This tribe stated that their ancestors emi¬ 
grated thither to escape the first Portuguese settlers. 
Their distinguishing feature was like that of the 
Benjamites; they could shoot to a hair’s breadth, 


THE SUPPOSED AMAZONS. 


305 


and not miss. But they must have been terrible 
liars, for they informed Texeira that two tribes lived 
on the south shore, one of dwarfs no bigger than 
young children, and the other with feet that grew 
backwards. They also endorsed the almost universal 
legend of the existence of a nation of Amazons, and 
amplified their account with a variety of highly 
interesting and impossible circumstances: all which 
the worthy navigator records with the same grave 
accuracy with which Herodotus and Pliny tell of the 
Bactrian Indians who hunted ants bigger than foxes 
for the sake of the gold they hoarded, and the one- 
eyed men and griffins who guarded the treasures in 
the deserts of Scythia. It is, however, a most 
singular thing, that the old story of the Amazons, 
which had been believed for hundreds of years in 
Europe, should have been localized in South America. 
The very place of their abode was indicated, and tra¬ 
veller after traveller received the same report from 
all the different tribes. Condamine, in 1743, made 
minute inquiries, and his statement of what the 
Indians told him is the same substantially as the 
recorded testimony of all other explorers. The only 
thing that was, and still is, wanting to complete the 
discovery, was that somebody should find the Ama¬ 
zons themselves. 

The last tribe Texeira met with worthy of notice 
here, were the Topajos. They used so powerful a 
poison on their arrows, that they were greatly dreaded 
by the Portuguese. This is noticeable, as showing 
how ancient the use of the wourali poison is. 

The number of nations they met with amounted to 
150. Their countries were so thickly peopled, it 
was stated, that an axe-stroke in the villages of one 


30G 


BRAZIL. 


might be heard in those of another. The travellers, 
having had a safe and prosperous voyage, were in 
extasies of delight with the people, the country, the 
climate, and everything they had seen. The people, 
they said, were generally handsome, docile, intelli¬ 
gent, and partially civilized; the country was a 
very paradise of beauty and fertility; and the climate 
was all that heart could wish. 

The climate and the country are still all that they 
describe ; but the hundred and fifty populous nations 
of handsome and civilized natives either existed only 
in their excited brains, or have gone whither so many 
others have gone before Spanish lust and greed. 

They described the languages of the tribes they 
visited as three—the Tupi, the Guarani, and the 
Omagua; the second being the parent of the other 
two. The Jesuits adopted the Tupi, and, with an 
admixture of Portuguese, formed the lingua franca 
or lingua geral which is still the main means of com¬ 
munication with them. 

There may have been many other tribes now 
extinct of whom no record is left; and many may 
still exist in the vast unexplored interior of the 
empire who have hardly ever, if ever, seen the face ol 
a white man. Once or twice, emigrations from the 
interior have taken place to the better known parts 
of Brazil, in some cases exciting as much terror as 
the floods of Goths and Huns that so inexhaustibly 
poured from the steppes of Scythia and Thibet into 
the decaying Roman empire. Thus, long after the 
discovery of Brazil, a nation of ferocious cannibals 
made their appearance on the sea-shore. The bold 
Tupinambas and Tamoyos were before them as the 
Greek soldiers before Attila; and as the Romans 


AYM0RE8, BOTACUDOS, AND ATURES TRIBES. 307 





looked upon the Huns as not human, but diabolic, 
not only in their practice, 
which they certainly were, 
but also in their origin, so 
the dwellers on the coast 
of Brazil, white and yellow, 
looked on the Aymores as 
they were called, as irra¬ 
tional beings, a sort of 
savage ape. Nothing could 
withstand them at first. 

• They assaulted Porto Se- 
guro and the Ilheos with 
such ferocity that all agri¬ 
culture was stopped. One 
weakness of theirs saved 
their enemies again and 
again. They had an ungo¬ 
vernable fear of water, and 
once across a stream or on 
a lake, the most defence¬ 
less were safe. They were 
finally routed and nearly 
destroyed. Their descend¬ 
ants, now known as Bota- 
cudos, still wander, on the 
banks of the Doce and 
Bellemonte, pre-eminently 
hideous from their custom 
of sticking pieces of wood 
into holes in their lips and botacupo lip and ear 

ears. 

The Atures were another tribe of the same sort, 
who are now totally extinct. A curious relic of them 



308 


BRAZIL. 


was seen by Humboldt in 1806-—an old parrot, who 
spoke several sentences in their language, which no 
one could understand—one of those faint echoes of 
a perished nationality occasionally to be met with. 
Another of these of higher interest the Bible Society 
possesses in a translation of the Bible, with the help 
of which David Brainerd preached to thousands of 
North American Indians the word of life, which pro¬ 
bably not one living being in this world can now 
read. Nation and language, teacher and taught, are 
all gone, and there remains nothing but the dumb 
and useless signs to mark, like fossil bones, but less 
clearly, that a nation was, and is not. 

Still, extinct or degraded though many of the 
nations of South America are, multitudes have sur¬ 
vived the exhausting trial, to savage tribes, of con¬ 
quest by civilized man. The Caribs and other tribes 
of the West Indian Islands are gone from the face of 
the earth: so are the Aztecs of Mexico. The Peru¬ 
vians have some relics left, but the Brazilian Indians 
still survive in their old villages, under their old 
government to a great extent, and with their old 
habits, manners, and modes of life. The minister of 
the empire reports 19,000 catechumens under instruc¬ 
tion in schools; and the pagan Indians must be a 
hundred times as numerous, though no reliable esti¬ 
mate of their numbers has, it is believed, been yet 
made. The elasticity with which they have survived 
the shock of foreign conquest seems explicable. 

The inhabitants of the West Indian islands were 
most of them mild, unwarlike, and unfitted for bodily 
labour; and when hostilities with engines which they 
were altogether unable to resist, and, what was still 
more deadly, enforced and severe toil began their de- 


THE AZTECS. 


30‘9 


struction, they were unable to escape. From end to 
end of each lovely island their oppressors with fiendish 
cruelty hunted them down, till the weak race sub¬ 
mitted in a blind and hopeless apathy to their inevit¬ 
able doom. They perished, in fact, because they could 
not run away. 

The Aztecs of Mexico, on the contrary, had a 
country of vast extent, and impervious forests; 
bordering too on those endless plains from which, 
year by year, the fierce Comanches swarm with such 
inextinguishable hatred to the Spanish name, to 
avenge the wrongs of the ancient race: but the 
Aztecs were tied by bonds they could not break. 
Mr. Schoolcraft, the greatest authority on the anti¬ 
quities of the Indian tribes, has shown how entirely 
the Aztec civilization and empire depended on the 
cultivation of the maize. An agricultural people 
may be enslaved; a nomadic people cannot be, at 
least easily. They may be subject , indeed, either to 
some central authority of their own, as the ancient 
Tartars to the Touroultai or national synod, or to 
some external authority whose chains are generally 
but loosely worn, as the modern Arabs to the Porte, 
or rather the nearest pasha; but enslaved, as a 
numerous nation must be before it can be exterminated, 
by toil and oppression, they can hardly be. Those 
who have tried the experiment have generally met 
the fate of Cyrus from the hands of Tomyris queen of 
the Scythians, or Crassus and his legions from the 
Parthians. But once collect a wandering tribe, make 
it depend for daily bread on the fruits of the earth, 
get it to invest the capital of time, money, and labour 
in the tilling of the soil, and gather it into a herd of 
peasants huddling in villages—and it is at the mercy 


310 


BRAZIL. 


of any stronger neighbour. Men will not or cannot 
leave their fields and canals, and houses and cities. 
They have borne any hardship and oppression rather 
than do so, except in one or two instances of mari¬ 
time nations, such as the Phoceans, who did it, and 
the Dutch who threatened to do it. 

It is the people who are tied by habit and neces¬ 
sity to the soil who suffer from foreign conquest, not 
the hunters, shepherds, and herdsmen. 

The Peruvians, a nation three times as large as 
the Mexicans, were hampered in the same way by 
their civilization, and the highly artificial system 
of irrigation and agriculture by which they had 
converted the rainless shores of the Pacific into a 
garden. The Aztecs were proud and warlike; 
the Peruvians were gentle and effeminate : but both 
were, and were obliged to be, tillers of the soil, and 
both were destroyed because they would not run aw*ay. 

Far different was the condition of the Brazilian 
Indian. He needed no irrigation, for his country 
abounded in brooks, rivers and lakes, and the endless 
forests kept the whole land moist with heavy dews. 
He needed no agricultural labour, and did none, for his 
wild trees and herbs brought forth abundantly better 
fruit than he could prepare. The only plant that 
wanted any cultivation was the manioc, and for 
that it was sufficient to burn down a few trees and 
scatter the seed among the ashes. Every other want 
he felt was supplied by the natural untended products 
of his teeming soil. If he was attacked, he could 
wander any whither into a boundless wilderness 
of unending fertility and beauty ; and no thickly 
planted, carefully cultivated fields, or populous towns 
bound him to any one spot more than another, The 


INDIANS’ RESOURCES. 


311 


little clusters of palm-huts took a few hours only 
to raise; and if he was too idle to build them, 
he could sling his hammock to a tree, and sleep with 
perfect comfort like a sloth. 

And yet, except when driven out of their territories 
by force, these tribes were not strictly nomadic. 
In some respects they were safer even than Tartars 
or Caffres. If a Caffre’s herds are destroyed, the 
whole tribe may perish, unless assisted, as was seen 
quite recently in the last Caffre war. But a Tupin- 
amba native had no herds or flocks to attack. His 
food and drink hung on every tree. His two hundred 
kinds of palms furnished him not only with food and 
drink, but with housing, clothing, bedding, hats, 
firing, pots and pans, cordage and fishing-tackle, salt, 
spears and arrows, shields, and musical instruments. 

This is no exaggeration, as Mr. Fletcher has shown. 
Suppose an Uaupe Indian on the Bio Negro. The 
rafters of his hut are of the leopoldina pulchra. The 
roof is of the leaves of the g arand palm. The doors 
and framework of the split stems of the friartea 
exhoriza. The bark of another makes petticoats 
and aprons for his wife and daughters. The fibres 
of another are twisted into bowstrings and fishing- 
lines. Those of a sixth are woven into hammocks. 
The comb that confines his long black hair is cut 
out of the hard wood of a seventh. So are his fish¬ 
hooks from its spines. His hats and caps, and the 
delicate cloth he wraps his treasures in, are from the 
spathes of the manicaria saccifera. He can intoxicate 
himself with the liquor he procures from eight 
different kinds. Oil he gets from many others. Salt, 
of rather a strange taste certainly, he makes by burn¬ 
ing and pounding the clusters of nuts that hang on 


312 


BRAZIL. 


the jam assu. His manioc he squeezes with the 
wood of one which is so hard that the poisonous 
juice does not rot it, The spathes of the maximiliana 
regia “ are used by hunters to cook meat in; as, with 
water in them, they stand the fire well ” (Wallace). 
Cradles and spades too are made out of them. Arrows 
are made from the patawa , and lances and harpoons 
from the iriatea ventricosa. The long blowpipe comes 
from the seligera. And from other palms the Indian 
obtains the big bassoon on which he plays dismal 
music to propitiate the evil spirit. 

Most of the Brazilian tribes had another preserva¬ 
tion besides their independence of the soil and semi- 
nomadic habit—a fierce and indomitable temper. 
Many were cannibals; some eating their enemies out 
of revenge, others eating any human beings they 
could spear or poison, from a preference for the 
diet, and others devouring their relatives and friends 
as one of the last sad offices of blighted hope and 
sorrowing affection. To this day cannibal tribes 
exist in the interior, on the head waters of the 
Amazon, as wild and primitive as if no white man’s 
foot had ever trodden on Brazilian soil. This is 
abundantly proved by competent testimony. For 
instance, Mr. Wallace, a perfectly dependable writer, 
states that “ forty days’ journey from the Amazon 
up the river Purus, are found the Catauixis, and 
near them other tribes of Indians, who are cannibals, 
killing and eating Indians of other tribes; and they 
preserve the flesh thus obtained smoked and dried.” 

The Brazilian Indians fought hard for freedom. 
Some settlements they destroyed, as we have seen 
in the earlier chapters. When justly and fairly 
treated by the colonists, they were gradually collected 


TUPINAMBAS AND TAMOYES. 


313 


into villages, and then, humanly speaking, it was 
left to casual circumstances whether they continued 
to exist or not. The Jesuits did much for them; 
but the slave-hunters were greedy and strong, and 
the villagers had lost the idle, wandering life that 
yielded to pressure and tyranny by simply moving 
off further into the wilderness. Some tribes have 
totally disappeared, swept from the face of the earth 
by the mingled influence of white men’s diseases, 
white men’s example, and white men’s cruelty. On 
the whole, however, it must be admitted that as a 
nation the Portuguese treated the natives well, 
compared to the Spaniards, French, and English. 
Their deadliest enemies were the Mamelukes or 
mixed race. 

Some nations saved themselves by bodily migrat¬ 
ing from the settlements where they had been placed, 
readopting, as it were, the old habits which had been 
their safety before. The Tupinambas and the 
Tamoyes of Rio and Minas Geraes were thinning fast, 
and grievously oppressed. The Tupinambas stayed 
where they were, and are now extinct. The Tamoyes, 
those mighty archers who had so effectually aided 
the French Huguenot settlers at Rio—being able 
with arrows to pin the shield to the arm, the arm to 
the body, and sometimes to drive it right through 
shield, arm, body and all with such force as to make 
it quiver deep in a tree beyond—acted differently 
from their unfortunate brethren. A chief, Jappy 
Assu, persuaded them, since they could not resist, 
to emigrate, and they did. More than 3000 miles 
away, they fixed their abode on the southern bank of 
the Amazon down to Marajo, from the junction of the 
Madeira. Their descendants are now called Mau- 


314 


BRAZIL. 


drucus, the fiercest of all the Brazilian Indians. 
They live in villages, in each of which is a fort, 
where all the men sleep every night. They carry 
to a great length the honours paid by many other 
tribes to the dried heads of their slain enemies; 
adorning them with feathers, and placing them like 
tutelary deities round their fortress. When working 
in their rude fields they stick one of these ghastly 
ornaments on a pole at the end of the enclosure. 

The Tapajos are another tribe that has this strange 
custom. They are compelled by some superstitious 
theory to carry these mementoes about with them 
everywhere, especially when clearing a new sitio or 
settlement, when the head is stuck on its pole, its 
painted clay eyes glaring with a kind of bland 
idiocy at the labour that is going on. 

Civilization has not made much advance among 
the Indians. They seem unable to adopt its rules 
or make progress for themselves ; and the pure light 
of gospel truth has never yet been brought to bear 
on their minds, still lying in natural darkness. In 
the army, they make good soldiers, steady, obedient 
and temperate, with abundance of animal courage. 
The Jesuits succeeded in instilling a certain amount 
of quasi refinement and order into them in their 
aldeas. But it was all outside, an external frame¬ 
work of decorum that cramped and deadened 
while it remained, but which, when removed, left 
the patient more enfeebled than before. What they 
are ordered to do they will do, what they are 
ordered to believe and say they will believe and 
say; but to do, believe, or discover anything new 
for themselves they have not been taught. 

At present they are nominally free, but liable to 


PROTECTION OF INDIANS. 


315 


great oppression from their white fellow-countrymen, 
whose superiority they painfully feel. They are, 
however, protected by most stringent laws. Mr. 
Edwards mentions a case where a white man who 
lost his temper and struck an Indian, was imprisoned 
for three years. 

The government of the subject tribes, under 
the governor of the province, of course, is left to 
the chiefs of the settlements and villages, who are 
called tauchas, and hold the rank of colonels in 
the army. In each district is a capitao dos traba- 
lhadores, or surveyor of the labourers. His office 
is to inspect the Indians and free negroes. With 
him the contracts for labour are made, and he sends 
a requisition to the taucha, who must find the men, 
cost what it may. Compulsory though this is, it has 
been justly remarked that it is only what is done 
among us in securing a jury. Their wages are 
certain, and their treatment is good. As, most 
certainly, they would not work were they not obliged, 
the whole question resolves itself into the right 
of a community to insist upon its idle members 
doing a fair day’s work for a fair day’s wages, 
instead of supporting them in idleness. As to these 
Indians, the government seems to act not only with 
perfect good faith, but also with extreme leniency. 

Those tribes that have been partially civilized and 
brought under the forms of regular government are 
quiet and well-behaved, but very lazy. Even when 
under contract, and nearly at the end of their 
voyage or job, whatever it may be, it is sometimes 
difficult to keep them from deserting from sheer dis¬ 
like of the mildest labour, and leaving their unpaid 
wages and slender baggage behind them. Still a 


316 


BRAZIL. 


great part of the industry of the country is performed 
by them. The vessels on the great rivers are manned 
by them; their canoes bring down gold, india- 
rubber, and other commodities; crews of them man 
the cocoa-boats; estates are cultivated, and farms 
are held by them to a considerable extent; and 
until the colonies of German and other emigrants 
are much more widely extended than at present, 
they must continue to be a most important part of 
the commonwealth. 

Their own peculiar manufactures are by no means 
unimportant. The beautiful feather-work in which 
they excel is very popular, not only in the empire, 
but in foreign countries. None can equal them, for 
they have many secret and curious arts in the trade, 
not the strangest of which is the undoubted power 
they possess of dyeing the feathers of living birds 
almost any colour they please. The story goes, 
concerning the brilliant yellow feathers they use, 
that they pluck out a certain number from a bird 
while alive, and into the roots squeeze the secretion 
from the skin of a particular frog. The feathers thus 
treated grow ever afterwards, it is said, of the much 
prized yellow, or orange tint. However that may 
be, it is certain that the real Indian feather orna¬ 
ments sold at Bahia cannot be produced except by 
Indians. Some which they compose from the breast 
and throat plumage of humming-birds are beyond 
comparison the most gorgeous decorations that can 
be devised by the wit of man. They also imitate 
flowers in their way, so as to deceive any eyes at 
first sight. These artificial flowers are made not only 
of feathers, but also of fish-scales, sea-shells, beetles’ 
wings, and other materials. 


INDIAN MANUFACTURES. 


317 


The feather dresses of the chiefs are gorgeous. A 
skull-cap of wild cotton is thickly set with small 
macaw feathers; and to it is attached a long cape 
made of the tail plumes of the same birds, gaudy and 
glittering. The sceptre, and rest of the dress are 
worked in the same way; and when the prince 
appears in full costume, his appearance is one of 
prismatic glory. 

India-rubber shoes are another great article of 
Indian manufacture. The method of making them 
is so well known as to need no description here. 

The national weapons, and many of the national 
customs of the Indians, are gradually dying out. 
Cheap German and English guns are superseding the 
blowpipe and bow and arrows. The Indian sports¬ 
man’s great ambition is to get a gun; and in his 
choice he uses a singular test of excellence. The one 
virtue, in his eyes, is, that the gun should kick. 
Mr. Edwards mentions one Indian who was so dis¬ 
satisfied with an excellent piece, because it did not 
recoil so smartly as he liked, that he actually took it 
to a smith, and had the chambers bored larger, 
ignorant of the danger of explosion. 

Many of these weapons, tools, and customs are 
curiously like those in other parts of the world. The 
Bomese use a blowing cane called the sumpitau. 
The style of architecture of the Uaupes and Mau- 
drucus, and many of their habits, especially in the 
matter of the heads of the slain, closely resemble 
those of the dyaks of Borneo. 

The baskets and boxes brought from Borneo and 
New Guinea are so like those of the Amazonian 
Indians that it is difficult to distinguish them. The 
Purupurus use, instead of the bow, a throwing- 


318 


BRAZIL. 


stick identical with that of the Australian savage 
called the waddy. 

But in a few more years the Brazilian Indian 
will have discarded his old weapons and utensils, 
and taken to those of civilized life. lie himself, 
having escaped destruction, will probably mix more 
and more with the whites, and become to Brazil 
what the relics of the British owners of England, or 
of the Norman conquerors, are now among us—races 
in which the old strange origin can still be partially 
traced, but in all other respects part and parcel of 
the general social body. But it will be long before 
this takes place completely. Many tribes have 
practically still to be discovered and subjugated; 
and those that are well known must pass through 
much discipline and education before they are fit for 
absolute freedom. 

In religious matters they were, when discovered, 
among the lowest of American natives. Many 
tribes seem, like the negroes of the Guinea coast, to 
have little more than a blind dread of some fetish or 
demon. The nations of the north, at least these on 
the coast, have no idea of a supreme beneficent being, 
but stand in great awe of an evil spirit they call 
watasha , and of a water-ghost called lewira. To 
these they offer a sort of sacrifices. It should be 
remembered, however, that their religious rites are 
precisely the things they are most shy of revealing 
to strangers. This devil-worship, or rather devil- 
propitiation, is tl\e foundation of several of their cere¬ 
monies and superstitions. It is only of late years 
that any very authentic accounts of these have 
reached us; and some of their observances are very 
curious, resembling, to a considerable extent, those 


FUNERAL RITES. 


312 


that are found on the Gold coast, and in some of the 
Polynesian islands. The following is a description 
by an eye-witness * of the funeral rites practised by 
the Sambos, the mixed race of Indians and negroes 
on the coast, as well as by many of the northern 
tribes:— 

“ On advancing to the huts, and the centre of the 
group, I found a small pitpan (canoe) cut in half, in 
one part of which, wrapped in cotton cloth, was the 
dead body of a man of middle age, much emaciated, 
and horribly disfigured by what is called the bulpis , a 
species of leprosy which is almost universal on the 
coast, and which, with the aid of rum, has already 
reduced the population to one half what it was 
twenty years ago. This disgusting disease is held 
in such terror by the Indians of the interior, that 
they have prohibited all family relations between 
their people and those of the coast, under the penalty 
of death. 

“ Around the pitpan were stationed a number of 
women with palm branches, to keep off the flies 
which swarmed around the already festering corpse. 
Their frizzled hair started from their heads like the 
snakes on the brow of the fabled Gorgon; and they 
swayed their bodies to and fro, keeping a kind of 
treadmill step to the measure of the doleful tom-tom 
(native drum). With the exception of the men who 
beat the drum and blew the pipe, these women ap¬ 
peared to be the only persons at all interested in the 
proceedings. The rest were standing in groups, or 
squatted at the roots of the palm trees. I was be¬ 
ginning to get tired of the performance, when, with 
a suddenness that startled even the women around 

* Bard: “ Adventures on the Mosquito Shore.” 


320 


BRAZIL. 


the dorpse, four men, entirely naked, excepting a 
cloth wrapped round their loins, and daubed over with 
variously coloured clays, rushed from the interior of 
one of the huts, and hastily fastening a piece of rope 
to the half of the pitpan containing the corpse, 
dashed away towards the woods, dragging it after 
them like a sledge. The women with the Gorgon 
heads, and the men with the drum and the trumpet, 
followed them on the run, each keeping time on his 
respective instrument. The spectators all hurried 
after in a confused mass, while a big native, catching 
up the remaining half of the pitpan, placed it on his 
head, and trotted behind the crowd. 

“ The men bearing the corpse entered the woods, 
and the mass of the spectators, jostling each other in 
the narrow path, kept up the same rapid pace. At 
the distance of perhaps two hundred yards, there 
was an open place covered with low, dank, tangled 
s underbush, still wet from the rain of the preceding 
night, which, though unmarked by any sign, I took 
to be the burial-place. When I came up, the half of 
the pitpan containing the body had been put in a 
shallow trench. The other half was then inverted 
over it. The Gorgon-headed women threw in their 
palm branches, and the painted negroes rapidly 
filled in the earth. While this was going on some 
men collected sticks and palm branches, with which 
a little hut was hastily built over the grave. In this 
was placed an earthen vessel full of water. The 
turtle spear of the dead man was stuck deep in the 
ground at his head, and a fantastic fellow with an 
old musket discharged three or four rounds over 
the spot. 

“ This done, the entire crowd started back in the 


INDIAN BURIAL. 


321 


same manner it had come. No sooner, however, did 
the painted men reach the village, than, seizing some 
heavy machetes (hatchets), they commenced cutting 
down the palm trees that stood around the hut that 
had been recently occupied by the dead man. It 
was done silently, in the most hasty manner; and 
when finished they ran down to the river and plunged 
out of sight in the water—a kind of lustration or 
purifying rite. Thay remained in the water a few 
moments, then hurried back to the hut from which 
they had issued, and disappeared. 

“ This savage and apparently unmeaning ceremony 
was explained to me as follows. Death is supposed 
to result from the influences of a demon, called 
Wulasha, who, ogre-like, feeds on the bodies of the 
dead. To rescue the corpse from this fate, it is 
necessary to lull the demon to sleep, and then steal 
away the body and bury it, after which it is safe. 
To this end they bring in the aid of the drowsy drum 
and droning pipe, and the women go through a slow 
and soothing dance. Meanwhile, in the recesses of 
some hut, where they cannot be seen by Wulasha, a 
certain number of men carefully disguise themselves, 
so that they may not be recognised and tormented; 
and when the demon is supposed to have been lulled 
to sleep, they seize the moment to bury the body. I 
could not ascertain the reason for cutting down the 
palm trees, except that it had been always practised 
by their ancestors. As the palm tree is of slow 
growth, it has resulted, from this custom, that they 
have nearly disappeared from some parts of the coast. 
I could not learn that it was the habit to plant a 
cocoa-nut tree upon the birth of a child, as in some 
parts of Africa, where the tree receives a common 


Y 


322 


BRAZIL. 


name with the infant, and the annual rings on its 
trunk mark his age. 

“ If the water disappears from the earthen vessel 
placed on the grave, which, as the ware is porous, it 
seldom fails to do in the course of a few days, it is 
taken as evidence that it has been consumed by the 
dead man, and that he has escaped the maw of Wula- 
sha. This ascertained, preparations are at once made 
for what is called a seekros or feast of the dead, orgies 
which I afterwards witnessed.” 

This feast Mr. Bard afterwards describes thus :— 
“ Here I was witness of a curious ceremony—a seekroe , 
or festival of the dead. This festival occurs on the 
first anniversary of the death of any important mem¬ 
ber of a family, and is only participated in by the rela¬ 
tives and friends of the deceased. The prime ele¬ 
ment, as in every feast, is the chicha (a fermented 
drink), of which all drink profusely. Both males 
and females were dressed in a species of cloak of ule 
baik, fantastically painted with black and white, 
while their faces were correspondingly streaked with 
red and yellow ( anotta ). The music was made by 
two big droning pipes played to a low, monotonous 
vocal accompaniment. The dance consisted in slowly 
stalking in a circle, for a certain length of time, when 
the immediate relatives of the dead threw themselves 
flat on their faces on the ground, calling loudly on 
the name of the departed, and tearing up the earth 
with their hands. Then rising, they resumed their 
march, only to repeat their prostrations and cries. 1 
could obtain no satisfactory explanation of the prac¬ 
tice. ‘So did our ancestors,’ was the only reason 
assigned for its continuance.” 

The negroes in the country preserve so many of 


NEGRO AND INDIAN SUPERSTITIONS. 323 

their old Obi practices, that it is hardly to he won¬ 
dered at that the aborigines, a great part of whose 
acquaintance with so-called Christianity conies from 
the blacks, should still adhere to devil-worshipping 
rites. A negro in danger at sea has been seen kneel¬ 
ing before a candle, catching the blood that dripped 
from a self-inflicted gash in the arm, in a mysterious 
horn called gre-gre, and muttering strange words, 
probably unintelligible to himself, learned from the 
Obi-man as a spell, whereby, with the aid of human 
blood, to propitiate the demon, whom his darkened 
mind pictured as thirsting for his life. It is terrible 
to think in how many thousands of human hearts 
Satan has succeeded in substituting, for the love of 
a God of mercy and a dying Saviour, the abject fear 
of dark and sanguinary spirits of evil. 

Some of the Indian tribes have a custom, strange 
from its resemblance to the taboo of the Polynesians. 
When a mother approaches the time of her confine¬ 
ment, she is taken to a hut in a secluded spot, and 
remains for two months in the charge of two old 
women, passing through lustrations or purifications 
unknown to the men. While so confined to the 
hut, no one is allowed to approach it, and all persons 
are especially cautious not to pass it to windward, 
for it is imagined that by so doing, the wind, which 
supplies the breath of the newly-born child, would be 
taken away and it would die. 

The taboo makes its appearance in several of the 
ceremonies of the tribes; for instance, in that of mar¬ 
riage. A description by the traveller last quoted of 
a marriage feast at which he was present, among the 
Towka Indians, may not be uninteresting. “ In this 
tribe, as in some others, children are betrothed at a 

y 2 


324 


BKAZIL. 


very early age, and marked in a peculiar manner, 
each couple wearing little bands of coloured cotton 
on the limbs. Each couple have a diflerent pattern, so 
that, from childhood, there is no confusion as to who 
is to marry whom. Both boys and girls also wear a 
necklace of variegated shells or beads, to which one 
is added yearly. When the boy’s necklace counts ten 
beads or shells, he is called mcthascd , a word of triple sig¬ 
nification, namely, ten, all the fingers, and half a man. 
When they number twenty he is called ’all, signi¬ 
fying also three things, namely, twenty fingers and 
toes, and a man. If his affianced have reached fifteen, 
the marriage ceremony takes place without delay. 

“ As I have said, a sleek young Towka was called 
on to add the final bead to his string, and take on 
himself the obligations of manhood, during my stay 
at the village. The event had been anticipated b} r 
the preparation of a canoe full of palm wine, mixed 
with crushed plantains and a little honey, which had 
been fermenting to the utter disgust of my nostrils, 
from the date of my arrival. The day was observed 
as a general holiday. Early in the morning all the 
men of the village assembled, and with their knives 
removed every blade of grass which had grown up 
inside of a circle, perhaps a hundred feet in diameter, 
situated in the very centre of the village, and indi¬ 
cated by a succession of stones sunk in the ground. 
The earth was then trampled hard and smooth, after 
which they proceeded to erect a little hut in the very 
, centre of the circular area, above a large fiat stone 
that was permanently placed there. This hut was 
made conical, and perfectly close, except at an open¬ 
ing in the top, and another at one side towards the 
east, which was temporarily closed by a mat woven 


AN INDIAN MARRIAGE. 


325 


of palm bark. I looked in without hindrance, and 
saw, piled up on the stone, a quantity of the dry 
twigs of the copal tree, covered with gum of the same. 
The canoe full of liquor was dragged up to the edge 
of the circle, and literally covered with small white 
calabashes, of the size of an ordinary coffee cup. 

“ At noon, precisely, all the people in the village 
hurried without order to the hut of the bridegroom’s 
father. I joined the crowd. We found the happy 
swain arrayed in his best, sitting demurely on a 
bundle of articles, closely wrapped in a mat. The 
old men to whom I have referred formed a line in 
front of him, and the eldest made him a short address. 
W hen he had finished, the next followed, until each had 
had his say. The youth then got up quietly, shouldered 
his bundle, and, preceded by the old men and fol¬ 
lowed by his father, marched off to the hut of the 
prospective bride. He put down his load before the 
closed door, and seated himself upon it in silence. 
The father then rapped at the door, which was 
partly opened by an old woman, who asked him what 
he wanted, to which he made some reply that did 
not seem satisfactory, when the door was shut in his 
face and he took his seat beside his son. One of the 
old men then rapped, with precisely the same result, 
then the next, and so on. But the old women were 
obdurate. The bridegroom’s father tried it again, 
but the she-dragons would not open the door. The 
old men then seemed to hold a council, at the end of 
which a couple of drums, made by stretching a raw 
skin over a piece of a hollow tree, and some rude 
flutes were sent for. The latter were made of pieces 
of bamboo, and shaped something like flageolets, each 
having a mouth piece and four stops. The sound 


826 


BRAZIL. 


was dull and monotonous, though not wholly 
unmusical. 

“ Certain musicians now appeared, and at once 
commenced playing on these instruments, breaking 
out, at intervals, in a kind of supplicatory chant. 
After an hour or more of this soothing and rather 
sleepy kind of music, the inexorable door opened a 
little, and one of the female inmates glanced out with 
much affected timidity. Hereupon the musicians re¬ 
doubled their efforts, and the bridegroom hastened to 
unroll his bundle; it contained a variety of articles 
supposed to be acceptable to the parents of the girl. 
There was, among other things, a machete (hatchet), 
no inconsiderable a present, when it is understood 
that the cost of one is generally a large dory (canoe), 
which it requires months of toil to fashion from the 
rough trunk of the gigantic ceiba (cotton-tree). A 
string of gay glass beads was also produced from the 
bundle. All these articles were handed in to the 
women, one by one, by the father of the groom; 
with every present the door opened wider and wider, 
until the mat was presented, when it was turned 
back to the utmost, revealing the bride arrayed in 
her prettiest, seated on a chickery at the remotest 
corner of the hut. The dragons affected to be ab¬ 
sorbed in examining the presents, when the bride¬ 
groom, watching his opportunity, dashed into the 
hut, to the apparent horror of the women, and grasp¬ 
ing the girl by the waist, shouldered her like a sack, 
and started off at a trot for the magic circle in the 
centre of the village. The women pursued, as if to 
overtake him and rescue the girl, uttering cries for 
help, while all the crowd huddled after. But the 
youth was too fast for them; he reached the ring, 


MARRIAGE CEREMONIES. 


327 


and lifting the veil of the hut, disappeared within it. 
The women could not pass the circle, and all stopped 
short at its edge, and set up a chorus of despairing 
shrieks, while the men all gathered within the 
charmed ring, where they squatted themselves, row 
on row, facing outward. The old men alone remained 
standing, and a hit of lighted pine having meanwhile 
been brought, one of them approached the hut, lifted 
the mat, and handing in the fire, made a brief speech 
to the inmates. A few seconds afterwards an aroma¬ 
tic smoke curled up from the opening in the top of 
the little hut, from which I inferred that the copal 
had been set on fire. 

“ When they saw the smoke the old women grew 
silent and expectant, hut by-and-by, when it sub¬ 
sided, they became suddenly gay, and went in for 
the festivities, which up to this time, I must confess, 
I had thought rather stupid. But here I may ex¬ 
plain, that although the bridegroom has no choice in 
the selection of his wife, yet if he have reason for 
doing so, he may while the copal is burning take 
her in his arms, and cast her outside of the circle, in 
the open day, before the entire people, and thus rid 
himself of her for ever. But in this case the matter 
is carefully investigated by the old men; and woe 
betide the wretch who, by this public act, has im¬ 
peached a girl wrongfully. Woe equally betide the 
girl who is proved to have been “put away” for 
good reasons. If, however, the copal burns out 
quietly, the groom is supposed to be satisfied, and 
the marriage is complete. 

“ The copal in this instance burned out in the 
most satisfactory manner; and then the drums and 
flutes struck up a most energetic air, the music, of 


328 


BRAZIL. 


which consisted of about eight notes, repeated with 
different degrees of rapidity by way of giving variety 
to the melody. The men all kept their places, while 
I was installed in a seat of honour beside the old 
men. The women, who, as I have said, could not 
come within the circle, now commenced filling the 
calabashes from the canoe, and passing them to the 
squatting men, commencing with the ancients and 
the ‘ distinguished guests.’ There was nothing 
said, but the women displayed the greatest activity 
in filling the empty calabashes. I soon discovered 
that everybody was deliberately, and in cold blood, 
getting up what is called on the coast the ‘ big drunk 
that was part of the performance of the day, and the 
Indians went at it in the most orderly and expeditious 
manner: they wasted no time in coyish preliminaries. 
It was not from love of the drink that the Towkas 
imbibed, I can well believe, for their chicha was bad 
to look at and worse to drink. 

“ With the fourth round of the calabashes, an 
occasional shout betrayed the effects of the chicha 
upon some of the weaker heads : these shouts became 
more and more frequent, and were sometimes uttered 
with a savage emphasis which was rather startling. 
The musicians, too, became more energetic; and as 
the sun declined the excitement rose, until, unable 
to keep quiet any longer, all hands got up and joined 
in a slow swinging step round the circle, beating 
with their knuckles on the empty calabashes, and 
joining at intervals in a kind of refrain, at the end 
of which every man struck the bottom of his calabash 
against that of his neighbour; then, as they came 
round by the canoe, each one dipped his calabash 
full of the contents. The liquid then taken up was 


DANCE AND INTEMPERANCE. 


329 


drunk at a single draught; and then the dance went 
on, growing more rapid with every dip of the cala¬ 
bash. It got to the stage of a trot, and then into a 
fast pace, and finally into something little short of a 
gallop, but stiU in perfect time. The rattling of the 
calabashes had now grown so rapid as almost to be 
continuous, and the motion so involved and quick 
that as I watched it I felt that kind of giddiness 
which one often experiences in watching the gliding 
of a swift current of water. This movement could 
not be kept up long, even with the aid of chicha; and 
whenever a dancer became exhausted he would 
wheel out of line, and throw himself flat on his face 
on the ground. Finally every one gave in except 
two young fellows, who seemed determined to do, in 
their way, what fast young men in other countries 
undertake to accomplish, namely, drink each other 
down, or ‘ under the table.’ They danced and drank, 
and were applauded by the women, but were so closely 
watched that it was impossible to tell which had the 
best chance of keeping it up longest; in fact each 
seemed to despair of the other, and, as if by a common 
impulse, both threw aside their calabashes and re¬ 
solved the contest from a trial of endurance into one 
of strength, leaping at each other’s throats, and fasten¬ 
ing their teeth like tigers in each other's flesh. 

“ There was instantly a great uproar, and those of 
the men who had ability to stand clustered around 
the combatants in a confused mass, and evidently, as 
I thought, regarded it as a 1 free fight;’ but there 
was little damage done, for the old men, though very 
drunk, had discretion enough to send the women for 
things, with which the pugnacious youths were in¬ 
continently bound hand and foot, and dragged close 


330 


BRAZIL. 


to the hut in the centre, and there left to cool them¬ 
selves off as they were best able, no one taking the 
slightest notice of them. ‘ Verily,’ I ejaculated to 
myself, ‘ wisdom knoweth no country.’ 

“ The dance which I have described was resumed 
from time to time, until it became quite dark, when 
the women brought a large number of pine splinters, 
of which the men each took one. These were lighted, 
and then the dancers paced up to the little hut, and 
each tore off one of the branches of which it was 
built, finally disclosing the newly-married couple, 
sitting demurely side by side. As soon as the hut 
was demolished, the groom quietly took his bride on 
his back—literally ‘ shouldering the responsibility,’ 
—and marched off to the hut which had previously 
been built for his accommodation, escorted by the 
procession of men with torches. This was the final 
ceremony of the night, though some of the more dis¬ 
sipated youths returned to the canoe, and kept up a 
drumming, and piping, and dancing, until morning. 
Next day everybody brought presents of some kind 
to the newly-married pair, so as to give them a fair 
start in the world, and enable them to commence 
life on equal terms with the best in the village.” 

For ailments familiar to them, the Indians are 
acquainted with many most effectual remedies, and 
white men have had cause sometimes to acknowledge 
with gratitude that they show themselves no con¬ 
temptible physicians. The disease the native doctors 
have most commonly to deal with is the miasmatic 
fever, that lurks about the tangled mangrove-swamps 
and reed-grown flats along the coast and larger rivers. 
When a patient is attacked with the preliminary 


INDIAN REMEDIES FOR FEVER. 


331 


symptoms, dull pain in the head, chilliness, lassitude, 
and then the first terrible experience of how a human 
frame can, shiver, he is given a decoction of the 
physic-nut (jatropha), which grows on a low bush 
all along the coast; this is a powerful emetic and 
cathartic, and its effects are usually followed by re¬ 
freshing sleep. The enemy is not to be conquered by 
this, however, or by any other remedy than the great 
specific, cinchona, the active principle of quinine. 
This the Indians seem to obtain from various trees, 
among others, from the roots of a kind of mangrove, 
as well as the more commonly known tree that yields 
the Peruvian bark. They administer the several 
kinds at different stages, and in different ways. The 
final draught for a convalescent is composed of thin 
strips of the mangrove bark in rum, to be taken 
morning and evening. Their dieting during the 
fever is very careful; a patient is generally fed on 
the seeds of the okra, boiled with the more delicate 
parts of quails and other tender birds. The patient 
is strictly forbidden to wash: indeed the Spaniards 
and Portuguese not only carefully abstain from water, 
but from air and light, shutting themselves up closely 
in dark rooms during the continuance of the fever. 

Another curative article of diet is the flesh of the 
manitus or sea-cow, described above. This animal’s 
meat is a specific, it is said, for scorbutic diseases, 
being both very laxative and exercising a beneficial 
influence on weak and disordered digestions. The 
flesh of the tapir has the same property. 

The most alarming calls on the skill of Indian 
physicians arise from a fortunately rare cause, the 
bites of venomous serpents. The following is the 
account of the treatment adopted in one instanoe:— 


332 


BRAZIL. 


“ While engaged in gathering dry wood, a Payer 
boy took hold of a fallen branch, under which was 
coiled a venomous snake, known as the tamagasa 
(called by the English tommy-gaff and the Indians 
piuta-sura or poison snake). He had scarcely put 
down his hand, when it struck him in the arm. 
He killed it, grasped it by the tail, and hurried to 
our camp. I was much alarmed, for his agitation 
was extreme, and his face and whole body were of 
an ashy colour. Antonio (an Indian servant) was 
not at hand, and I was at an utter loss what to do, 
beyond tying a ligature tighly round the arm. 

“ The boy, however, retained his presence of mind, 
and unrolling a mysterious little bundle, which 
contained his scanty wardrobe, took out a nut of 
about the size, and much the appearance, of a horse- 
chestnut, which he hastily crushed, and mixing it 
with water, drank it. By this time Antonio had 
returned, and learning the state of the case, seized 
his machete, and hastened away to the low grounds 
on the edge of the savannah, whence he came back, 
in the course of half an hour, with a quantity of 
some kind of root, of which I have forgotten 
the Indian name. It had a strong smell of musk, 
impossible to distinguish from that of the genuine 
civet. This he crushed and formed into a kind of 
poultice, bound it on the wounded arm, and gave 
the boy to drink a strong infusion of the same. This 
done, he led him down to the beach, dug a hole 
in the moist sand, in which he buried his arm to 
the shoulder, pressing the sand closely round it. 

I thought this an emphatic kind of treatment, which 
might be good for Indians, but which would be 
pretty sure to kill white men. The boy remained 


POISONOUS SNAKES—REMEDIES- PALM WINE. 333 

with his arm buried during the entire night, but 
next morning, barring being a little pale and weak 
from the effects of these powerful remedies, he was 
as well as ever, and resumed his usual occupations. 
A light blue scratch alone indicated the place where 
he had been bitten. 

“ The tamagasa (a specimen of which I subse¬ 
quently obtained) is about two feet long. It is of 
the thickness of a man’s thumb, with a large flat 
head, and a lump in the neck, something like that 
of the cobra, and is marked with alternate black 
and dusky white rings. It is reputed one of the 
most venomous serpents under the tropics, ranking 
next to the beautiful but deadly corral.” 

A remedy which the Indians consume very largely, 
whether they need it or not, is the chicha, or palm 
wine, mentioned above. It is obtained from the palm 
called coyol ; the Spanish name for the liquid being 
“ vino de coyol,” and the Indian “ cockarluce.” 

The tree is cut down, and near the top where the 
leaves spring holes are cut nearly through, and then 
covered with a piece of the bark. In a few hours, 
the cavities are filled with a frothy liquid, of a light 
straw colour, something like Sauterne wine. Drunk 
through a reed in this state it is wholesome, and 
deliciously refreshing. The holes will fill every ten 
or twelve hours, and, it is said, though emptied 
daily, will go on filling for upwards of a month. 

The Indians expose the tree to the sun, and about 
the third day the juice begins to ferment, till in 
a couple of weeks it becomes highly intoxicating. 
The Spaniards, and indeed all classes of people, 
affirm that it is then a specific for indigestion and 
pain's in the stomach. 


334 


BRAZIL. 


It is a little difficult to discover what is the real 
present condition of the Indians, from the contradic¬ 
tory accounts given by different travellers. One is 
fortunate enough to have enjoyed his sojourn among 
a tribe, and enthusiastically attributes to them sciences, 
arts, and national organization, which, to say the least, 
are not common among savages. Another is very un¬ 
comfortable, and very glad to escape to civilization 
again after a few days among a bad specimen of the 
wandering nations; and according to his account they 
are in a degraded condition, and fast disappearing. 

The celebrated traveller, Madame Pfeiffer, paid a 
visit to one of the Brazilian tribes during her short 
stay in Brazil. As her statements are accurate and 
her observations acute, it may be interesting to 
give her own words, though it should not be forgotten 
that, as a lady, she felt inconveniences rather acutely, 
and that her experience extended only to one of the 
nations, and one exposed to those influences of neigh¬ 
bouring civilization which are always trying, and 
often ruinous to savages.* 

“ On the 11th of October, I proceeded into the 
forest, in company with a negress and a Puri, to find 
out the Indians (the Puris). At times, we had to 
work our way laboriously through the thicket; and 
then again we would find narrow paths, by which 
we pursued our journey with greater ease. After 
eight hours’ walking, we came upon a number of 
Puris, who led us into their huts, situated in the 
immediate vicinity, where I beheld a picture of the 
greatest misery and want: I had often met with a 
great deal of wretchedness in my travels, but never 
with so much as I saw here. 

* "A Woman’s Journey round the World.” 


CONDITION AMD APPEARANCE OF INDIANS. 335 

“ On a small space under lofty trees, five huts, 
or rather sheds formed of leaves, were erected, 
eighteen feet long by twelve feet broad. The frames 
were formed of four poles stuck in the ground, with 
another reaching across, and the roof of palm leaves, 
through which the rain could penetrate with the 
utmost facility. On three sides, these bowers were 
entirely open. In the interior hung a hammock or 
two ; and on the ground glimmered a little fire under 
a heap of ashes, in which a few roots, Indian corn, 
and bananas were roasting. In one corner, under 
the roof, a small supply of provisions was hoarded 
up, and a few gourds were scattered around : these 
are used by the savages instead of plates, pots, water 
jugs, etc. The long bows and arrows, which con¬ 
stitute their only weapons, were leaning in the 
back ground against the wall. 

“I found the Indians still more ugly than the 
negroes. Their complexion is a light bronze : they 
are stunted in stature, well knit, and about the 
middle size. They have broad and somewhat com¬ 
pressed features, and thick coal-black hair hanging 
straight down, which the women sometimes wear 
in plaits fastened to the back of the head, and some¬ 
times falling down loose about them. Their forehead 
is broad and low, the nose somewhat flattened, the 
eyes long and narrow, almost like those of the Chinese, 
and the mouth large, with rather thick lips. To give 
a still greater effect to all these various charms, a 
peculiar look of stupidity is spread over the whole 
face, and is more especially to be attributed to the 
way in which their mouths are always kept open. 

“ Most of them, men and women, were tattooed 
with a reddish or blue colour, though only round 


336 


BRAZIL. 


the mouth, in the form of a moustache. Both sexes 
are passionately fond of smoking, and prefer brandy 
to everything. Their dress was composed of a few 
rags, which they had fastened round their loins. 

“ I had already heard, in Novo Friburgo, a few 
interesting particulars concerning the Puris. 

“ The number of the Brazilian Indians at the 
present time is calculated at about 500 , 000 , who 
live scattered about the forests in the heart of the 
country. Not more than six or seven families ever 
settle on the same spot, which they leave as soon as 
the game in the neighbourhood has been killed, 
and all the fruits and roots consumed. A large 
number of these Indians have been christened. 
They are always ready, for a little brandy or tobacco, 
to undergo the ceremony at the shortest notice, and 
only regret that it cannot be repeated more frequently. 
The priest believes that he has only to perform the 
rite to gain another soul for heaven, and afterwards 
gives himself very little concern either about the 
instructions or the manners and morals of his converts. 
These, it is true, are called Christians, or tamed 
savages, but live in the same heathen manner that 
they previously did. Thus, for instance, they con¬ 
tract marriages for indefinite periods, elect their 
Caciques from the strongest and fiercest men, and 
follow all their old customs on the occasion of 
marriages and deaths, just the same as before bap¬ 
tism. 

“ Their language is very poor. They are said, for 
example, only to be able to count one and two, and 
are therefore obliged, when they desire to express a 
larger number, to repeat these two figures con¬ 
tinually.” 


THE PURI INDIANS. 


337 


Of the Sambos, the mixed race of the northern 
coast, Mr. Bard says : “ The}^ count by twenties, i.e ., 
collective fingers and toes, and make fearful work of 
it when they ‘get up in the figures.’ Thus to 
express thirty-seven, they say, ‘ Iwanaiska-kumi-pura- 
matawalsip-pura-matlalkabe-pura-kumi ,’ which literally 
means, one and twenty and ten and six and one, that is, 
20-f-l-f 10 4-64-1. They reckon their days by sleeps, 
their months by moons, and their years by the com¬ 
plement of thirteen moons.” 

Madame Pfeiffer proceeds: “ Furthermore, for to- 
day, to-morrow, and yesterday, they possess only the 
word day, and express their more particular meaning 
by signs; for to-day , they say day, and feel their head, 
or point upwards; for to-morrow, they again use the 
word day, and point forwards ; for yesterday, they use 
the same word and point behind them. 

“ The Puris are said to be peculiarly adapted for 
tracking run-away negroes, as their organs of smell 
are very highly developed. They smell the trace of 
the fugitive on the leaves of: the trees; and if the 
negro does not succeed in reaching some stream, in 
which he can either walk; or swim for a considerable 
distance, it is asserted he can very seldom escape the 
Indian engaged in pursuit of him. These savages 
are also employed in felling timber and cultivating 
Indian corn, manioc, etc., as they are very industrious, 
and think themselves well paid with a little tobacco, 
brandy, or coloured cloth. But on no account must 
they be compelled to do anything by force : they are 
free men. They seldom, however, come to offer their 
assistance unless they are half-starved. 

“ I visited the huts of all these savages, and as my 
guides had trumpeted forth my praises as being a 

z 


338 


BRAZIL. 


woman of great knowledge, I was here asked my 
advice for the benefit of every one who was ill. 

“ After having sufficiently examined everything in 
the huts, I went with some of the savages to shoot 
parrots and monkeys. We had not far to go to meet 
with both; and I had now an opportunity of admiring 
the skill with which these people use their bows. 
They brought down the birds even when they were 
on the wing, and very seldom missed their mark. 
After shooting three parrots and an ape, we returned 
to the huts. 

“ The good creatures offered me the best hut they 
possessed, and invited me to pass the night there. 
Being rather fatigued by the toilsome nature of my 
journey on foot, the heat, and the hunting excursion, 
I very joyfully accepted their proposition. I there¬ 
fore spread my cloak on the ground, arranged a log 
of wood so as to serve instead of a pillow, and for the 
present seated, myself upon my splendid couch. In 
the meanwhile, my hosts were preparing the monkey 
and the parrots, by sticking them on wooden spits 
and roasting them before the fire. In order to render 
the meal a peculiarly dainty one, they also buried 
some Indian com and roots in the cinders. They 
then gathered a few large fresh leaves off the trees, 
tore the roasted, ape to pieces with their hands, and 
placing a large portion of it, as well as a parrot, 
Indian corn, and some roots, upon the leaves, put it 
before me. My appetite was tremendous, seeing 
that I had tasted nothing since the morning. I 
therefore immediately fell to on the roasted monkey, 
which I found superlatively delicious: the flesh of 
the parrot was far from being so tender and pala¬ 
table. 


INDIAN PEACE AND WAR DANCES. 


339 


“ After our meal, I begged the Indians to perforin 
one of their dances for me. As it was already dark, 
they brought a quantity of wood, which they formed 
into a sort of funeral pile and set on fire. The men 
then formed a circle all round, and began the dance. 
They threw their bodies from side to side in a remark¬ 
ably awkward fashion, but always moving the head 
forward in a straight line. The women then joined 
in, remaining, however, at some little distance in the 
rear of the men, and making the same awkward 
movements. They now began a most horrible noise, 
which was intended for a song, at the same time dis¬ 
torting their features in a frightful manner. One of 
them stood near, playing upon a kind of stringed 
instrument, made out of the stem of a cabbage palm, 
and about two feet, or two feet and a half, in length. 
A hole was cut in it in a slanting direction, and six 
fibres of the stem had been raised up, and kept in an 
elevated position at each end, by means of a small 
bridge. The fingers were then used for playing on 
these as a guitar: the tone was very low, disagreeable, 
and hoarse. 

“ This first dance they named the Dance of Peace 
or Joy. The men then performed a much wilder one 
alone. After providing themselves for the purpose 
with bows, arrows, and stout clubs, they again formed 
a circle; but their movements were much quicker 
and wilder than in the first instance; and they like¬ 
wise hit about them with their clubs in a horrible 
manner. They then suddenly broke their rank, 
strung their bows, placed their arrows ready, and 
went through the pantomime of shooting after a 
flying foe, uttering at the same time the most piercing 
cries, which echoed through the whole forest. I 


340 


BRAZIL. 


started up in affright, for I really believed that I was 
surrounded by enemies, and that I was delivered up 
into their power, without any chance of help or 
assistance. I was heartily glad when this horrible 
war-dance came to a conclusion. 

“ On the 12th of October, early in the morning, I 
took leave of the savages, and made them a present 
of various bronze ornaments, with which they were 
so delighted that they offered me everything they 
possessed. I took a bow with a couple of arrows, as 
mementos of my visit, returned to the wooden house, 
and, having also distributed similar presents there, 
mounted my mule, and arrived late in the evening 
at Aldea de Pedro.” 

As a contrast to this description, we may take one 
of another tribe, by another traveller. 

“ The course of life of the Indians appeared to be 
exceedingly regular and monotonous. Both men and 
women found abundant occupation during the day: 
they went to bed early and rose with the dawn. 
Although most of them had hammocks, they uni¬ 
versally slept on what are called crickeries , or plat¬ 
forms of canes, supported on forked posts, and covered 
with variously coloured mats, woven of the bark of 
palm branches. I observed no drunkenness among 
them, and altogether they were quiet, well ordered, 
and industrious. In all their relations with me they 
were respectful and obliging, but exceedingly 
reserved. I endeavoured to break through their 
taciturnity, but without success. I left them with 
admiration for their primitive habits, and genuine, 
though formal hospitality.” 

Among some of the tribes in the north exists a 
strange class of people, called Sukias. They are 


SUKIAS OR SORCERERS. 


341 


generally females, a^d claim, and according to some 
accounts possess, powers actually supernatural. 
Their authority over the tribes is almost unbounded. 
Without expressing any opinion on the reality of 
their pretensions, we may give the words of an eye¬ 
witness.* 

“The Sukias are usually women, although their 
powers and authority are sometimes assumed by men. 
Their preparation for the office involves mortifications 
as rigorous as the Eoman church ever required of 
her most abject devotees. For months do the candi¬ 
dates seclude themselves in the forests, avoiding the 
faces of their fellows, and there, without arms or 
means of defence, contend with hunger, the elements, 
and the wild beasts. It is thus that they seal their 
compact with the mysterious powers which rule over 
earth and water, air and fire, and they return to their 
villages invested with all the terror which supersti¬ 
tion has ever attached to those who seem to be 
exempt from the operation of natural laws. 

“ These Sukias are the * medicine-men,’ of the coast, 
and afiect to cure diseases; but their directions 
are usually more extravagant than beneficial. They 
sometimes order the victim of fever to go to an open 
sand-beach, and there, exposed to the burning heat 
of a vertical sun, await his cure. They have also 
a savage taste for blood; and the cutting and scarifi¬ 
cation of the body are among their favourite remedies. 

“Mr. H. (an English resident) was not a little 
piqued at my incredulity in the Sukias, and, faithful 
to his promise, persuaded one of them to give us an 
example of her powers. The place was the enclosure 
in the rear of his own house, and the time evening. 


* Bard’s Adventures. 


342 


BRAZIL. 


The Sukia made her appearance alone, carrying a 
long thick wand of bamboo, and with no dress but 
the ule touruou (waist-cloth). She stalked into the 
house like a spectre, without uttering a word. H. 
cut off a piece of calico, and handed it to her as 
her recompense. She received it in perfect silence, 
walked into the yard, and folded it carefully on the 
ground. Meanwhile a fire had been kindled of 
pine-splints and branches, which was now blazing 
high. Without any hesitation, the Sukia walked 
up to it, and stepped in its very centre. The 
flames darted their forked tongues as high as her 
waist, the coals beneath and around her naked feet 
blackened and seemed to expire; while the touruou 
which she wore around her loins cracked and 
shrivelled with the heat. There she stood, immov¬ 
able, and apparently as insensible as a statue ol 
iron, until the blaze subsided, when she commenced 
to walk round the smouldering embers, muttering 
rapidly to herself in an unintelligible manner. 
Suddenly she stopped, and placing her foot upon the 
bamboo staff, broke it in the middle, shaking out, 
from the section in her hand, a full-grown tamagasa 
snake, which on the instant coiled itself up, flattened 
its head, and darted out its tongue in an attitude 
of defiance and attack. The Sukia extended her 
hand, and it fastened on her wrist with the quick¬ 
ness of light, where it hung, dangling and writhing 
its body in knots and coils, while she resumed her 
mumbling march around the embers. After a while, 
and with the same abruptness which had marked 
all her previous movements, she shook off the serpent, 
crushed its head in the ground with her heel, and 
taking up the cloth which had been given to her, 


SUKIAS. 


343 


stalked away, without having exchanged a word with 
any one present. 

“ Mr. II. gave me a triumphant look, and asked 
what now I had to say. ‘ Was there any deception 
in what I had seen ?’ I only succeeded in convincing 
him I was a perversely obstinate man, by suggesting 
that the Sukia was probably acquainted with some 
antidote for the venom of the serpent, and that her 
endurance of the fire was nothing more remarkable 
than that of the jugglers, ‘ fire-kings ’ and other 
vagrants at home, who make no pretence of super¬ 
natural powers. 

“ * Well,’ he continued, in a tone of irritated dis¬ 
appointment, 4 can your jugglers and * fire-kings ’ tell 
the past and predict the future? When you have 
your inmost thoughts revealed to you, and when 
the spirits of your dead friends recall to your memory 
scenes and incidents known only to them, yourself, 
and God; tell me,’ and his voice grew deep and 
earnest, ‘on what hypothesis do you account for 
things like these ? Yet I can testify to their truth. 
You may laugh at what you call the vulgar trickery 
of the old hag who has just left us; but I can take 
you where even your scoffing tongue will cleave to 
its roof with awe, where the inmost secrets of your 
heart shall be unveiled, and where you shall feel 
that you stand face to face with the invisible dead.’ ” 

Moved by this rather alarming promise, Mr. Bard 
did go into the mountains, and, in a passage too long 
for extract, affirms that things were done and said, 
and revelations given to him by means of a 
young Indian Sukia, for which he is at a loss to 
account. His American predilections in favour of 
spirit-rapping, mesmerism, and similar phenomena, 


344 


BRAZIL. 


seem to have received corroboration highly satisfac¬ 
tory to himself. | 

The religion of the Brazilian Indians, even of 
those nominally Christianized, seems to be the 
merest matter of habit. And none instruct them. 
How can they believe unless they hear? And 
how can they hear without a preacher? 

The same may, indeed, be said of the whole empire; 
and any missionary agency employed for the whites 
would be very—if not equally—efficient for the 
Indians, for most of the civilized tribes understand and 
speak Portuguese, or at least the lingua franca. 

Who can tell what effect might follow an extensive 
and faithful publication of the pure gospel among 
the millions of this great empire? how vigorously 
the superior race might bestir itself in the course of • 
intellectual and moral progress? and how, among 
the aborigines, the dull heart might be awakened, 
and the dim eye and clouded intellect be cleared 
under the beams of the Sun of righteousness ? 

It seems only too clear that the whites need almost 
as much enlightenment as the Indians. And until 
they are themselves awakened to a knowledge of 
the way of salvation, it is not to be expected that 
they will even endeavour to extend it to their 
barbarian fellow subjects. 

The soil is there, and it is white unto harvest; 
but the labourers are few, if any. It is for us in 
free Britain to labour, and pray the Lord of the 
harvest that he will send forth more labourers into 
his harvest. 

Still it is difficult to look at the past of Brazil, 
and not hope for her future. The mind is strongly 


RELIGIOUS PROSPECTS. 


345 


led to the conclusion that God has some work in 
store for a nation whose youth has been on the whole 
bo peaceful and prosperous, and whose circumstances 
are so favourable. The sympathies of Englishmen 
also must be not a little drawn out towards this 
western people, who have struggled so well and 
successfully for rational liberty, and for constitutional 
government in a form closely resembling our own. 

But whatever our wishes or anticipations may be, 
let us never forget that, after all, these nations, and 
tribes, and people, our own included, are but for a 
time, and soon to pass away. True it matters 
but little, when compared with the infinite in¬ 
terests of the coming eternity, what form of govern¬ 
ment a people lived under, or what amount of 
intellectual light they enjoyed, except in so far 
as these helped to prepare them for that eternity. 
We look not for the unending continuance, not for 
the endless gradual amelioration by ordinary in¬ 
fluences, of the eaTth whereon we now live, but for 
“ a new heaven and a new earth, wherein dwelleth 
righteousness.” Therefore our prayer and labour 
for ourselves and others should be, not so much for 
mental food and temporal prosperity, as for that 
righteousness. One thing is needful, the answer to 
the old question, “ How can a mortal man be just 
before God ?” Into the glorious city of God, more¬ 
over, we know nothing can enter “ which defileth 
or maketh a lie.” Another thing is needful: the 
answer to the question, “ How can a sin-smitten 
man be made meet for the inheritance of the saints 
in light ?” To both the answer is the same—given 
by God himself—quite certain, quite intelligible, 
quite sure, acted on and proved to the utmost by 


346 


BRAZIL. 


thousands, and never yet found to fail: “ My son, 
(my daughter,) give me thine heart.” And how ? Not 
in any way of our own ; not according to any fashion 
we fancy; but humbly, and simply, in the way of 
God’s appointment, by believing on the Lord Jesus 
Christ. That gives us righteousness, even in the 
eyes of a holy God; for it is a better righteousness 
than our own—that of our spotless Sacrifice. That 
will give us fitness for our future glory; for there¬ 
by we submit ourselves to the merciful guiding and 
watchful preparation of Him who has said, “He that 
toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye.” 

But it must be thorough. It will not do to fancy 
we believe, and yet regard iniquity, even the smallest, 
in our hearts. “ Cleanse thou me from secret faults,” 
must be our prayer. There must be no parleying 
with what is ruining our souls. Christ or the devil, 
heaven or hell, pardon or condemnation; there is 
no other choice, no intermediate selection possible. 
And the choice must be entire and immediate. 

At once, utterly, with no reserve, the heart must 
be surrendered, with the cry, “ Lord, I believe; help 
thou mine unbelief.” The desire must be real, to 
be conformed altogether to Christ’s image, not here 
and there, not now and then, but entirely and for 
ever. 

How peaceful, how calmly at rest, even here, 
those are who have thus fled for refuge to lay hold 
on the hope set before them! Such has been the 
blessed experience of many a tried and tempted 
saint. It was not till the tempest was at its worst, and 
the waves beat into the ship, that the disciples saw 
Jesus walking near them. To know his love to 
the uttermost needs perhaps all the trials of life, 


THE BLESSING OF THE FAITHFUL. 


347 


even the darkness of the valley of the shadow of 
death. But, that he is able and willing to save them 
to the uttermost who come unto God by him, the 
weakest believer knows, if not by experience, yet 
by confident faith. 

Blessed indeed is that man who knows the truth 
of the promise, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect 
peace whose mind is stayed on thee, because he 
trusteth in thee.” To him this world, and the king¬ 
doms thereof and the glory of them, are little more 
than a vain show that will soon pass away to make 
room for the kingdom of our God and his Christ. 
To his faith the darkness and confusion of other 
lands is little trial, if any; for “ Shall not the Judge 
of all the earth do right?” To his love, every land 
is a field wherein he may labour for his Master 
while it is called to-day, leaving it to that Master 
to bless the seed he sows or not according to his 
good pleasure, and ready and willing, when he is 
called, to depart to his rest and be with the Saviour 
in whom he has believed, which is far better. As 
his faith grows stronger, his sight is clearer, and 
his love more fervent; and daily more and more, 
amid the changes and chances of this mortal world, 
his heart will surely there be fixed where alone true 
joys are to be found, through Jesus Christ his Lord. 



















































INDEX. 


Advertisements, religious, 139; mis¬ 
cellaneous. 191 
Agouti, the, 270 
Alligators, 275 
Anaconda, the, 250 et seq. 

ADdradas, the Brothers, 92 ; Antonio, 
Carlos, &c., 110, 113 
Anjinhos, 142 

Ants, varieties of, 261 et seq .; ex¬ 
communicated, 263 
Ant-eater, the, 263 
Antonio, Joao, 204 
Amazons, the, 301, 305 
America, discovery of South, 6 et 
seq. 

Amerigo Vespucci, 5, 12 
Armadillo, the, 270 
Atures, the, 307 
Aymores, the, 301, 305 
Aztecs, the, of Mexico, 309. 

Bahia, 167 
Bananas, 224 

Banda Oriental, revolt of, 93; war 
with, 93 ; a republic, 101 
Bat, the vampire, 272 
Bedini, Monsignor, nuncio in Brazil, 
134 

Bees, 260 

Beetles, Hercules, 260 
Begging processions, 141 
Bibles, distribution of, by Dr. Kidder, 
137, 150 et seq. 

Blacks, treatment of, 154 
Boatbill, the, 293 
Botacudos, the, 30? 

Brainerd’s Bible, 308 


Brazil, discovery of, 9 ; first European 
settlement, 13 ; early system of 
government, 17 ; geography of, 18 ; 
rivers, 20 ; the first feudatories, 21 
et seq. Portuguese viceroys, 41 ; 
under Spanish dominion, 43; at¬ 
tacked by the Dutch, 44 ; insurrec¬ 
tion, 48 ; reestablishment of Portu- 
I guese authority, 49 ; administration 
1 of Carvalho, 62 ; restrictions on 
trade, 73 ; ports opened, 75 ; ele¬ 
vated into a kingdom, 82 ; revolu¬ 
tion, 85 ; declared independent, 89 ; 
political constitution, 95 ; reform, 
l 108; monarchical reaction, 109 ; re¬ 
ligious toleration, 132,135 ; political 
parties, 187 ; social condition, 212 ; 
fruits and vegetables, 219 et seq., 
233 ; forest-trees and plants, 235 ; 
reptiles, 251 ; animals, 274 et seq. ; 
birds, 283 et seq.; aborigines of, 
298 et seq. ; their preservation ac¬ 
counted for, 310 

Brazilian priesthood, 135,136 ; houses, 
163 ; etiquette, 171; management 
of children, 174 ; their clothing, 223 ; 
ladies, education and life of, 175; 
pedlars, 177; marketing, 178; 
meals, 179; games, 182; public 
schools, 184 ; literature, 188 et seq. ; 
bluebooks, 191; diseases, 195 ; beg¬ 
gars, 197 ; immorality, 200 ; shop¬ 
keepers, 209; musical tastes, 
212 

Buenos Ayres, war with, 80, 98, 
101 

i Butter turtle, 246 





350 


INDEX. 


Cabocto archers, 291 
Cabral, Pedro Alvares, 11 
Cacoa, the, 277; as a drink, 229 
Cannibalism, 312 
Campenero, the, or bell-bird, 289 
Capoeiros, 159 
Capybara, the, 270 
Caracara, the, 285 
Caripuras, the, 304 

Carvalho, Sebastian Joseph, bis policy, 
and degradation, 58 et seq. 
Castanhas, 226 
Catuixis, the, 312 
Celebrations, religious, 139 
Chambers, opening of, 116 
Chapel, English, at Rio, 146 
Chigoes, the, 260 
Churches in Brazil, 145 
Civil service in Brazil, 193 
Cochrane, Lord, 90 
Cocoa-palms, 224 

CofFee, cultivation of, 233 ; carriers of 
Rio, 155 
Colleges, 185 

Columbus, return of, to Palos, 1; his 
reception by Ferdinand and Isabella, 
3 

Companies, Brazilian, 48, 62 
Correa, the “ man of fire,” 29 
Coutinho, Francis, 30 
Cowfish, the, 239 et seq .; capture of, 
241, 331 

Cuisicararis, the, 303 

Deputies, chamber of, 187 
De Sousa, Martin Affonso, 21, 26 
Devil-worship, 318 et seq. 

Diamonds first found, 56 ; regulation 
of mines, 63 

Discoveries, early maritime, 5 
Dutch invasion of Brazil, 45 

Eel, electrical, 254 
Emigration to Brazil, 213 
Encabellados, the, or long-haired 
Indians, 302 

Fasting, 149 

Feijo on clerical celibacy, 133 
Ferreira, Joao, 205 
Festival of the Dead, 322 
Fever, miasmatic, 330 
Fine arts, academy of, 192 


Fish of Brazil, 238, 245 
Fishing, Indian method of, 244 
Foundling Hospital at Rio, 198 
French expedition against Brazil, 
50 

Garapatos, 260 

Gold mines, regulations for, 54 

Guiana, war with, 80 

Harpy, the, 283 

Huguenot colony, 36 ; its destruction, 

38 

Humming birds, 296 
Iguana, the, 257 

Indians, condition of, 314, 334 ; their 
numbers, 336; their manufactures, 
316; religion, 318, 344; funeral 
rites, 319 ; marriage ceremony, 324; 
treatment of diseases, 331; lan¬ 
guage, poverty of, 336; christening, 
336 ; personal appearance, 335; 
dances, 339 ; weapons, 237 ; mo¬ 
notony of life, 340 
Infidelity, 149 

Institute, historical and geographical, 
192 

Jacana, the, 292 
Jaguar, the, 247, 275 
Jappy Assu, 313 

Jesuit missionaries, 57; their repul¬ 
sion from Brazil, 61 
John vi. of Portugal,—escape as 
regent to Brazil, 69; reception at 
Rio, 75; his court, 77 ; corona¬ 
tion, 82 ; return to Portugal, 87 
Judas’ Day, 141 
Jupuras, the 304 
Justice, administration of, 193 

La Plata, discovery of estuary, 14 

Lepe, Diego, 10 

Leprosy, fatal “ cure ” for, 253 

Lewira, 318 

Library, national, 192 

Lima, regency of, 110 

Longfellow, 121 

Luzias, the, 187 

Macaws, 294 
Mangaba, the, 234 





INDEX 


351 


Mango, the, 233 

Manioc, preparation of, 220; uses 
222 

Manitus, the, 239 et seq. 

Marmoset, the, 283 
Marriage, an Indian, 323 
Mate, 181 

Maudrucus, the, 314 
Maurice, Prince, of Nassau, 45 
Men with tails, 218 
Minas, the, 157 

Missionaries, American, in Brazil, 
137 

Monkeys, varieties of, 278; the 
guariba, 279 ; reasoning of the 
sapajous, 280 ; story of an albino, 
281 

Monte Video, war with, 81 
Mosquitos, 259 

Moura, Bishop Antonio Maria de, 
132 

Museum, 192 

Naming discoveries, 22 
Napoleon i., his invasion of Portugal, 
69 

Navarro, 111 
Negro melodies, 211 
Newspapers, 188 
Nunneries, 146 
Nuts, Brazil, 226 

Obi spells, 323 
Ochee, the, 233 
Ojeda, Alonso de, 10 
Omaguas, the, 302 
Oranges, 225 

Orellana, Francisco de, voyage of, 
300 

Paca, the, 269 
Padres, the, of Rio, 139 
Palaces, 122 
Palm fruits, 224 
Palm-wine, 333 
Palmares, republic of, 158 
Parrots, 294 

Paulistan gold seeking, 52, 53, 55 
Peace, Indian dance of, 339 
Peccary, the, 265: encounter with, 
267 

Pedro, the Prince Dorn, 87; declared 


emperor of Brazil, 89; his coup 
d’etat, 93 ; promulgates a constitu¬ 
tion, 95; his diplomacy, 97 ; ab¬ 
dicates the Portuguese throne, 99 ; 
alienation of subjects, 102; his 
abdication of the Brazilian throne, 
105 

Pedro ii., 106 et seq. ; his majority 
proclaimed, 114; marriage, 115; 
character and attainments, 120 
et seq. ; imperial speech, 128 
Peerages, Brazilian, 186 
Pernambuco, Backwoodsmen of, 203 
Petropolis, 125 

Pfeiffer, Madame Ida, 160, 199, 213, 
334 

Pinzon, Martin Alonzo, 6 
Pinzon, Vincent Ganez, 6; his land¬ 
ing at Cape Sao Agostinho, 9 
Pizarro, Gonzalo, expedition of, 
300 

Plantains, 224 
Poison, the Wourali, 237 
Portugal, its colonies, 13; attacked 
by Napoleon, 68; emigration of 
the royal house, 69 ; revolution in, 
85 

Portuguese immigrants, 208; litera¬ 
ture, 189 
Pot-tree, the, 226 

Processions, religious, 141, 142, et 
seq. 

Puros, the, 304, 334, 337 

Rattlesnakes, 253 
Reinhardt, Dr., 120 
Relatorios, the, 191 
Religion, state of, 149 et seq. 

Rio de Janeiro, first entrance into the 
harbour, 14,21; colonised by French, 
36 ; a Portuguese settlement, 38 ; 
police in, 183 

Rio Negro, native life on, 311 
Roman Catholicism, 131 

Sambos, the, 319, 337 
Sandflies, 259 
Saquaremas, the, 187 
Scientific societies, 2 
Scorpions, 256 

Sebastianists, the, 204 et seq. 

Senate, the, 186 




352 


INDEX, 


Sermons in Rio, 138 
Slave-hunters, 52 
Slave-trade, 153 

Slavery, Brazilian, 153 et seq.; 
Madame Pfeiffer’s impression of, 
160 et seq. 

Slaves, held by Englishmen, 159; 

hired female, 200 
Sloth, the, 277 
Snakes, poisonous, 332 
Spanish conquests, boundary of, 11 
St. Anthony, miracle of, 147 
St. George, festival of, 141 
St. Vincent, 26 
Sukias, the, 341 
Sunday at Rio, 138 

Taboo, the, 323 
Tamagassa, the, 332 
Tamandria, the, 265 
Tamoyes, the, 313 
Tapioca, manufacture of, 221 
Tapir, the, 276 

Tea, cultivation of, 230 et seq. 

Teixera, expedi tion of, 302 et seq. 


Theresa, Dona, 115 
Tigers, 274 
Toads, 256 

Topajos, the, 305, 314 
Tortoiseshell, 249 
Toucan, the, 286 
Trouin, Duguay, 49 
Tucanas, the, 303 
Tupi-Guarani, the, 299, 306 
Tupinambas, the, 304, 313 
Turtles, 246 et seq. 

Umbrella-bird, the, 290 
Urinas, the, 303 

Vanilla, the, 235 
Vasconcellos, 112 
Victoria Regia, 292 
Vieyra, John, 48 

Villegagnon, Nicholas Durant de, 35 
et seq. 

Xavier, Silva, conspiracy of, 66 
Zurinas, the, 304 


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